#CAN IT BE MARCH 5TH ALREADY

[ezziefae]

i wonder how madocs character will play out in the prisoner’s throne.

from reading the prologue it looks like jude still cares very much about madoc, and apparently jurdan planned to save madoc but wanted to wait it out?

madoc has a very bad reputation in elfhame and the undersea. he’s the cause for many of the political problems and deaths since the beginning of TFOTA series.

The Stolen Heir ended in Oak freeing Madoc from lady nore and ordering Tiernan to take him to Elfhame, or somewhere else that’s safe only if Jude and Cardan decided not to take him back in. Whether Jude decides to accept him back to elfhame or not, we don’t know. but i can surely belive that Madoc would want to work with Jude to get Oak back. We’ll see how that goes in 26 days!!!

So now i have MANYYY questions, is this the book where Madoc redeems himself to elfhame and his family? will he play the hero? or is he going to keep betraying jude and cardan?

will he die???… or will jude lift his exile and welcome him back to elfhame?

but wouldn’t that be a problem for elfhame and the undersea? if jude lifted his exile then i believe it would be a bad look for jude and cardan. to forgive a person who was responsible for weakening Orlagh, for breaking his oath to the blood crown, betraying elfhame, and helping Balekin set out his plan to kill the royal family. Now that has got me wondering if that’s Jude’s political problem by the end of the book?

thoughts?

the prisoners throne comes out less than a month from now !! WOOHOO! so i feel the neeed to talk about some things that we might see in this book. Also apparently the prisoners throne will have 25 chapters!!

[crescentfool]

so you want to use OBS

hello! i’ve decided to compile information on my OBS setup and some resources that have helped me along the way.  this is mostly for personal reference, but maybe others can make use of this information!

some notes before i get into it:

i use OBS for both offline recording and (twitch) streaming. any footage i record is edited using DaVinci Resolve 18, which is free.

most of my OBS captures are of video games (through a USB capture card, specifically elgato), and the occasional screen/application capture (like clip studio paint, and sometimes PC games).

as such, the information here is reflective of these experiences. this post is not comprehensive to all of OBS’s features- this is just an overview of the settings and configurations that are most relevant to me.

with that out of the way, all the information will be under the cut!

Basic Setup

file format:

how to change: settings -> output -> recording -> recording format -> press “apply” once finished!

I save most of my recordings as .mkv files- it supports multi-track audio! i prefer .mkv over .mp4 because if your power goes out, you still have a recording to work with. 

.mkv files can be read by DaVinci Resolve without an issue- but for Adobe software, they'll need to be remuxed to .mp4 within OBS! (file -> remux recordings -> press the … to select a file -> press the “remux” button)

video resolution and framerate:

how to change: settings -> video -> output (scaled) resolution

my obs canvas is @ 1920 x 1080p (16:9)

i switch between 720p and 1080p as needed! if you're concerned about space, you can probably just go for 720p. i also record at 30 fps, simply because that’s what my capture card supports.

video bitrate:

how to change: settings -> output -> encoder settings (located in both the streaming and recording tab) -> press “apply” once finished!

bitrate is a bit of a doozy to explain, but the most important thing to know is that bitrate affects your video’s quality. lower numbers = lower quality, while higher numbers = higher quality. 

generally speaking, you'll want higher bitrate when you're recording things with high depth of information (e.g. you’d want a higher bitrate for something fast-paced like splatoon, compared to a slower-paced game like animal crossing).

my video bitrate is either set to 3000 or 4000 kbps! and here's some of my other (related) settings while i'm at it:

you can put your bitrate at much higher values than me if you're a stickler for quality- but keep in mind that a higher bitrate means:

bigger file size

more information to upload (when streaming)

your computer will need to encode more

i’d recommend reading twitch’s guidelines on encoding, bitrate, resolution, and framerate to get an idea of what values to pick. for people who are doing offline recording or streaming on a different platform, i suggest googling the appropriate resources!

multi-track audio:

this is mostly applicable to anyone looking to do video editing!

multi-track audio basically allows you to separate your audio sources (e.g. discord, game audio, and your own microphone) into different tracks. 

this is an immensely helpful tool because it lets you adjust audio levels in post-production (editing). some examples of how this can be used:

increasing someones microphone volume if they speak too softly

increasing/decreasing game audio

muting swear words/sensitive information

completely muting voice call + microphone if you want to upload a no commentary video

and more!

to set this up, take a look at your audio mixer panel, and press the ⚙ icon. this will bring up advanced audio properties.

by checkmarking a track box, it puts the audio on that track. to make the above screenshot easier to digest:

track 1 consists of ALL three audio sources- desktop, elgato, and microphone.

track 2 only has the microphone audio.

track 3 only has desktop audio (i use this for voice calls)

track 4 only has the elgato capture card audio (game audio). the volume has also been lowered so that any speaking voices can be heard clearly.

tracks 5 and 6 are unused.

you might be wondering, “why do all three of these have 1 checked off?” this is what i call the universal audio track. i recommend having a universal audio track for a few reasons:

when you stream from OBS onto twitch/youtube- you have to select ONE audio track.

it’s also a nice backup in case you didn’t separate your audio correctly.

if for whatever reason you need to move around your individual audio tracks in editing, the universal track acts as a nice reference point.

mark off your audio tracks for each audio source as you see fit! once you’re finished with the advanced audio properties, go to settings > output.

for the streaming tab, you’ll want to have the number of your universal audio track selected. in my case, that will be audio track 1.

for the recording tab, checkmark all the audio tracks that are applicable to you (in my case, audio tracks 1, 2, 3, and 4). by default, only audio track 1 is selected.

if you don’t check off the additional audio tracks in the output > recordings section, you will not have access to those audio tracks in editing, and you won’t be able to edit your audio tracks independently of each other. so don’t forget to do this! 👍

custom browser docks

custom browser docks are a great tool for when you’re streaming and want to have access to your twitch chat and/or activity feed! (or if you wanted to have some other web browser on OBS).

to create one, go to docks -> custom browser docks.

you’ll be given a table interface that asks you to put the dock name and URL. for streamers who want to have chat and alerts available, do the following:

on twitch’s homepage, go to the upper right and click your icon

then, click creator dashboard

once you’re on your dashboard, go to stream manager

click the vertical “...” on my chat OR activity feed.

press “pop-out chat” OR “pop-out activity feed”

copy and paste the link into the table back into OBS

press apply once you’re done

click and drag the docks around at your leisure to put them where you like!

if you ever decide you don’t want to have something on your OBS dock (or want to bring something back), go to the toolbar, click “docks,” and click the appropriate dock!

third party things

a section of optional things that you may enjoy having.

streamlabs alerts

this is basically for anyone who streams and wants to have their chat and/or follower notifications visualized on screen!

streamlab alerts can be added to OBS by adding a browser source into your scene, and the specifics can be customized on streamlabs itself. it’s pretty self-explanatory, so i’ll just leave a link to streamlabs website, where you can log in using the streaming platform of your choice: https://streamlabs.com/

discord overlay

this is a browser source that can be set up to show people who are in a server's voice chat and who speaks. i recommend this to people who make multiplayer content- it can help viewers distinguish who is who but also it can be helpful in editing.

to set this up, go to https://streamkit.discord.com/overlay, click “install for OBS,” and after logging in with discord, go to “voice widget” and click the server and voice channel you want.

you are able to apply CSS if you'd like more control over the visuals, but the standard layout tends to work fine for me! a search of “discord overlay css” on youtube can help you get more information.

veadotube mini

this is a pngtuber software that a friend recommended to me! no webcam is required- mouth opening and closing is based on your microphone input!

you can download it here (it’s pay what you want!): https://olmewe.itch.io/veadotube-mini

for a proper tutorial on how to use it, i recommend checking out the app's documentation, which you can read here: https://veado.tube/help/

source record

have you ever wanted to stream something with a chat overlay/layout, but wanted your recording to ONLY be the gameplay? or maybe you wanted to record BOTH your gameplay AND your webcam so that you can have a crisp zoom-in on your webcam!

source record is a third party plugin that can help you with that!

the general gist of source record involves applying the “source record” filter on either a scene or source, and customizing the encoding settings accordingly. the exact details of how to set it up is beyond the scope of this post, so I'll just direct people to this video instead (it was very helpful to me):

⚠ a quick note about source record: this plugin can be intense for your computer. be sure to do test recordings and the like to see what your computer can handle (and see if the recordings come out the way you like). it took me a few tests before i settled onto something i liked!

you can download and install source record here: https://obsproject.com/forum/resources/source-record.1285/

vdo.ninja

have you ever wanted to do a collaborative video or stream where you feature someone else’s video on your stream? or maybe you’re doing a multi-person streaming event! vdo.ninja is the perfect tool for you!

vdo.ninja turns your OBS virtual camera into a browser source link- which your collaborator can add on their stream! this is a new tool that i’ve added to my arsenal recently- since my friend and i are planning to stream a side order challenge together! i’ve still got to iron it out a bit more, but i like what i’ve used of it so far.

try it out for yourself at their website here (with documentation and demos available on the homepage!): https://vdo.ninja/ (no downloads required!)

ok! i’m set up! what now?

and with that, that’s all of the settings and tools that i thought would be worth mentioning! while most of my setup was written with video games in mind, some of these plugins and setups may be applicable to other types of videos (e.g. tabletop gaming with a physical camera)!

now that i’ve outlined all these settings, i have one more thing i have to say: regardless of what you're using OBS for, do a test recording before doing anything “official” with it. this recording can be as short as 30 seconds. it’s a good habit to develop that can make sure your streams/recordings turn out the way you want them to!

here are the kinds of things i like to check! it’s not an exhaustive list, but this can be a starting point:

video:

does my video look the way i want it to (and can my computer handle that)?

can my computer handle the load of encoding? - OBS will note in the bottom if the encoding is overloaded. if it can’t handle it, turn down your bitrate or adjust other encoding settings (e.g. i had to toggle psycho visual tuning OFF because it was causing lag)

this is especially the case if you're recording PC games- you don’t want to have slowdown on either your game or the recording!

audio:

are my audio sources (e.g. desktop audio and microphone) correct? - if you plug/unplug devices a lot, be sure to check this (settings -> audio).

are any of my audio sources muted? - make sure you don’t have anything on 🔇 if you don’t want it to be muted! otherwise the audio will be lost forever… (i lost my friend’s VC audio once… it was sad)

are my audio tracks separated properly? - requires you to boot up your editing software, but it's worth doing! for the test recording, just have something from all your sources playing at once, and see if your editor has things separated into tracks.

can i hear the voices clearly? or does the music and/or game overpower them?

if for whatever reason your OBS crashes, or you want more information on anything “critical” or “warning” worthy in your set-up, you can go to help > log files > upload current log file > analyze. crash logs currently can’t be analyzed by the log analyzer- but they’re a valuable tool when asking for help on the OBS forums!

and that’s all! for real, this time. i hope that some of these tools and settings can help anyone wanting to get more out of OBS. there’s definitely other things i didn’t touch upon (e.g. audio filters for noise compression, suppression, etc.), so i suggest doing your own research and trying things out!

happy recording/streaming, and thanks for reading! ✨

[akihikosanada]

i love the femc playthrough sososososo much to the point i see her route as the "real" persona 3 however i will never forgive atlus for making ken a romance option there . why did they do that

[thethief1996]

Israel has just bombed a hospital where hundreds of wounded and refugees were taking solace. Journalists in Gaza have reported there was hardly a single body whole in the aftermath (If you can stomach it, there's a video of a father holding what remains of his child). At least 500 people killed by IOF soldiers, who planned this action, got into an airplane and dropped that bomb willingly. The deadliest attack in five wars, according to the Ministry of Health.

Israel has denied ownership of the attack and said it was a misfired Hamas rocket. Originally, they celebrated it on their social media, saying they had destroyed a Hamas target, treating the deaths like an unfortunate collateral. After international backlash, they posted videos to their social media claiming it was a Hamas rocket. The video, though, shows a second explosion 40 minutes after the airstrike, and they edited it our of their tweet in a pathetic attempt at covering up.

Israel has said multiple times that they were going to bomb hospitals. They told doctors to evacuate and leave their patients to death because they were going to bomb, namely: Al Shifa, Shuhada Al Aqsa and the Quwaiti Hospital. Al Shifa housed at least 10.000 refugees and wounded, and worked as a hub for the press because it was one of the only hospitals that still had working generators. Medical crew worked with sirens blaring to signal the hospitals were not empty. This was a purposeful massacre. These people died hungry, thirsty and in pain because of the Israeli government's cruelty.

CNN and other media outlets already tried to pin the blame on Hamas, parroting back the pathetic propaganda being sold by the IOF. Even in death, Palestinians can't be respected and are used to further their own oppression. These people's deaths are not going to be in vain. Within our lifetimes, Palestine will be free.

Take action. The Labour Party in the UK had an emergency meeting today after several councilors threatened to resign if they didn't condemn Israeli war crimes. Calling to show your complaints works.

FOR PEOPLE IN THE USA: USCPR has developed this toolkit for calls

FOR PEOPLE IN THE UK: Friends of Al-Aqsa UK and Palestine Solidarity UK have made toolkits for calls and emails

FOR PEOPLE IN GERMANY: Here's a toolkit to contact your representatives by Voices in Europe for Peace

FOR PEOPLE IN IRELAND: Here's a toolkit by Voices in Europe for Peace

FOR PEOPLE IN POLAND: Here's a toolkit by Voices in Europe for Peace

FOR PEOPLE IN DENMARK: Here's a toolkit by Voices in Europe for Peace

FOR PEOPLE IN SWEDEN: Here's a toolkit by Voices in Europe for Peace

Protests in support have already erupted in Beirut, Madrid and Rabat in response to the shelling of the hospital. Join your local protest and raise your voices. For people in the US, Israel has just asked for additional $10bi in aid on top of the annual $3.8bi already given to them. Palestinians are asking that you refuse this loudly, with their every breath.

Here's a constantly updating list of protests:

Global calendar

USA calendar

Here are upcoming events:

WASHINGTON, DC: Outside Congress on 18/10 at 12 PM

WASHINGTON, DC: NATIONAL MARCH in front of the White House on 4/11 at 12 PM

SAN DIEGO: 2125 Pan American E Rd. (Spreckles Organ Pavillion) on 18/10 at 7 PM

NEW YORK: 72nd st. And 5th ave., Brooklyn on 21/10 at 2 PM

NEW YORK: CUNY Grad Building on 18/10 at 2 PM

NEW YORK: Oct 18, 5pm, Steinway & Astoria Blvd.

DALLAS: 1954 Commerce Street (Dallas Morning News Building) on 19/10 at 3 PM

[CAR RALLY] KITCHENER-WATERLOO: Fairview Park, 2960 Kingsway Dr. on 18/10 at 6 PM

KITCHENER-WATERLOO: CBC Building, 117 King St. W on 19/10 at 5 PM

HOUSTON: Zionist Consulate, 24 Greenway Plaza on 18/10 at 4 PM

OMAHA: 72nd St & Dodge St on 18/10 at 6 PM

SAINT PAUL, MN: Oct. 18, 5:30pm. State Capitol, 75 Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

BALTIMORE: Oct 20, 6pm. Baltimore City Hall

DUBLIN: Leinster House, Kildare Street, Dublin 1 on 18/10 at 5 PM

THURLES: Liberty Square on 19/10 at 7 PM

LURGAN: Market Street on 21/10 at 3 PM

PORTO ALEGRE: Rua João Alfredo, 61 on 18/10 at 19h

RIO DE JANEIRO: Cinelândia on 19/10 at 17h

RECIFE: Parque Treze de Maio on 19/10 at 17h

MANAUS: Teatro Amazonas, Largo de São Sebastião on 19/10 at 17h

SÃO PAULO: Praça Oswaldo Cruz on 22/10 at 11h

FOZ DO IGUAÇU: Praça da Paz on 22/10 at 9h

TSHWANE: Belgrade Square Park, Jan Shoba Street on 20/10 at 10 AM

VEREENIGING: Roshnee Sports Grounds on 21/10 at 14h30

Feel free to add more resources

[hotguycalendar]

Hermit Heartthrobs 2025 Debut!!!

(header by Anndy Oddissey on twitter and tumblr)

Welcome to the first edition of the Hermit Heartthrobs calendar!  

If you want to order the physical calendar already designed by our team, fill out this form and submit your email to receive an invitation to order the calendar from Mixbook. The form will be open until January 5th. If you want to preview the physical calendar, check it out here on Mixbook. 

You can view the physical calendar, here. 

If you want to design and print your own physical calendar or download any images, use the Heartthrobs Calendar Images folder, where you can download the same images we used. You can use a different website or photo printing service to create your own Heartthrobs Calendar. 

If you want the digital calendar you can download the Digital Calendar PDF from this PDF This is a 14-month calendar with the same basic designs and dimensions as the physical calendar, with a few bonus details. 

FAQ and Artist Credits below the cut! 

Q. Do you make any money from this? 

A. No, we do not. While the Mixbook calendar does cost money, none of it goes to the organizers or artists. It only goes to the printers to acquire the physical copy. 

Q. What size is the calendar? 

A. The calendar images are 12”x12”, and the full calendar is 12”x24”. 

Q. What is the price of the physical calendar? 

A. The final price naturally depends on shipping, but the base cost of the calendar right 

now is $44.99. However, Mixbook may have coupons available to make your order cheaper. 

Q. How is the quality of the physical calendar?

A. It’s great! The calendar itself is made of sturdy matte paper. The image quality is fantastic, the covers lovely, and the calendar itself is sturdy and well-constructed.

Q. What if Mixbook doesn’t ship to my country?

A. Mixbook ships to a wide range of international locations, but if they don’t ship to your specific country, you can download the digital calendar, or design your own and print it locally.

Artist Credits: 

Thank you so much to the team of incredible artists and mods who made this project possible! Go and give them some love! 

Artists for Hermitcraft Heartthrobs: 

Front Cover: Black Cat on tumblr, instagram and twitter 

January: NoahIslands on twitter and tumblr  

February: Jayce tumblr 

March: Anndy Oddissey on twitter and tumblr  

April: Myke on twitter and tumblr  

May: Galaxystt on tumblr and twitter   

June: Orphelia on twitter and tumblr  

July: Mooshroomterrarium on tumblr 

August: Eirian on tumblr, ko-fi, twitter, and caard    

September: Kazehita on tumblr, instagram, and twitter  

October: Otse on tumblr, twitter and bluesky    

November: Syneester on twitter, tumblr and instagram 

December: Isjasz on tumblr, and tumblr

Back Cover:  Avi on instagram and tumblr 

Mods:

Teahound on Tumblr 

Medusa on TumblrChrysalizzm  on Tumblr

[songoftrillium]

Werewolf: the Apocalypse 5th Edition and the Anti-Indigeneity in the Gaming Industry

reosted with permission from J.F. Sambrano

Dagot’ee!

Shii J.F. Sambrano gonsēē. My nations are Chiricahua Apache (Ndeh) through my maternal grandmother and Cora Indian (Náayarite) through my maternal grandfather.  I am a mixed race Indigenous person, and through my father my heritage is English and Scottish. I am currently residing and doing work in my community on the lands of Lummi Nation. I use both gender non-binary and masculine pronouns, but prefer the former. I have several published works in the TTRPG industry, and am probably most known for my contributions to Mage: the Ascension 20th Edition, Werewolf: the Apocalypse 20th Edition, and the Transformers Roleplaying Game, as well as being part of the Essence 20 development team. Further, I also work in higher education at an Indian college, both advising and teaching Indigenous students across the United States. My passion is education, and I believe that we all learn through play, and that TTRPGs are a valuable source of learning, especially on personal, cultural, and social levels. This has always been what has drawn me to TTRPGs since I started playing M.E.R.P. with my brother in 1996 (and before that HeroQuest), through to my “graduation” into more story-driven games such as those presented in the Storyteller System, until now, where I author and produce my own roleplaying games.

I was also part of the First Team (in-joke intentional) hired by White Wolf Studios/Paradox Interactive via Hunters Entertainment to develop and author Werewolf: the Apocalypse 5th Edition. After several months of work, Paradox Interactive chose to go in another direction in early 2021 (I believe it was either March or April) and in fall of that year, it was announced that Werewolf would instead be taken in house, with Justin Achilli as the Brand Creative Lead and primary author of the book. Going forward I will be describing my experience while I worked with Paradox Interactive, primarily through Karim Muammar, White Wolf’s Brand Editor, as well as the developmental editor for Werewolf. Although I worked in a team, both with hired authors and in-house representatives at Hunters Entertainment, I will not be speaking for the experience of others, except when specifically noting unanimous consensuses, and specific interactions (which will go unnamed) that are particularly relevant. My hope is that by highlighting some of the anti-Indigenous attitudes that are central to the foundational members and leaders of the White Wolf brand, that I can provide opportunities for growth and healing within the World of Darkness TTRPG community, but also in the broader gaming community, where these behaviors and attitudes are rampant. I also want the community to have a better understanding of what this experience is like internally, and the challenges that Indigenous creators, as well as other marginalized creators, are met with when they try to make positive change within nerd and geek communities clinging to inherited white supremacist values, even if they don’t realize they are doing so.

What I do not want to be doing in this article is creating fuel for edition wars.  I believe that both legacy and Werewolf 5th are rife with anti-Indigenous attitudes, and appalling amounts of appropriation. Both versions deserve criticism, I am not defending one over the other, I am only sharing what my experience was like working on the 5th edition of the book. Further, please understand that I was originally going to wait until I had read the final copy of the book, because I wanted to know how much of my work was used (based on previews I already know some was, just not the extent) and whether or not they decided to credit me for that work, and how I was going to be credited.  My belief is that I likely will not be, but I am genuinely uncertain.  Knowing how they handled that would have reframed how I addressed this. But more importantly, I want it to be very clear that even before Paradox ultimately pulled the plug on the Hunters team, I was preparing to exit working on the project based on the experience I will describe below. Not only did I find it frustrating, and personally disparaging, but I ultimately decided I was uncomfortable with my name being attached to the product based on the direction they wanted to go. So while I wanted to know whether or not I would be credited, because it would teach me something about their internal practices, I do not want or need the credit.

Finally, the reason that I decided to speak about this now instead of after having a chance to inspect the final product, was because my personal experience dealing with anti-Indigeneity coming from Paradox was just that: personal.  But since then I have witnessed a throughline of hateful and xenophobic attitudes wielded against Indigenous people across the globe, and we do not deserve this treatment.  I was outraged over the events that led to the segregation of the Latin American fanbase, which culminated from bottom-up criticism about how poorly their people and countries were being defined through World of Darkness products, and ended up with the firing of their Latin American Brand Ambassador, Alessa Torres, because she chose to stand with her community in those criticisms.  I was further appalled when the likeness of Tāme Wairere Iti was shoehorned into the Werewolf book, a blatant example of cultural theft: not only in stealing the literal physical identity of an Indigenous person, but also his sacred tā moko.  When Paradox Interactive issued an apology for this, it felt incredibly hollow to me in the wake of these events, the hateful attitudes I had personally witnessed coming from the top.

Whether from North America, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, or Peru, or across the globe in New Zealand, not only do Indigenous people deserve better treatment from such a major company, but their Indigenous and Latino fanbases, who have twisted and worked themselves through difficult representation for decades at this point, deserve better.  Apologies are not enough, especially when they come with next to no real change.

Werewolf: the Apocalypse in Context

At the time that White Wolf Publishing began to produce its World of Darkness line, the TTRPG industry was dominated by white men, both as producers, developers, and authors, as well as the main characters in their settings. White Wolf's World of Darkness made an impact at the time, by defying these Eurocentric, patriarchal presentations, first by defaulting to feminine pronouns throughout Vampire: the Masquerade, and then by focusing on Indigenous representation and values in Werewolf: the Apocalypse, and as a young Indigenous nerd, it had a positive impact on me, as I know it has on some other Indigenous people who became fans of the World of Darkness at the time. This was because before opening the pages of Werewolf: the Apocalypse, I had never seen heroes that I could play who looked like me and my culture. It was off, and often offensive, but it was my first experience in which I could directly play a hero who shared my heritage--and I also had more than one option through two different Tribes to do so. This might sound a little like I was cheering for table scraps, but again, at the time, table scraps was more than I had ever seen before.

Werewolf: the Apocalypse 1st Edition was originally published in 1992 via then White Wolf Publishing (not to be confused with Paradox Interactive's White Wolf). From its inception, the premise was interwoven with what its then-authors believed to be Indigenous praxis and representation.  Like many pop-culture presentations of Indigeneity from this time period (see Fern Gully, Dances With Wolves, Disney’s Pocahontas, or in TTRPGs, the NAN from Shadowrun) it was rife with problematic and even offensive stereotyping. The most obvious examples thereof are within the two "Pure Tribes" Uktena, and W****** who I will henceforth refer to as Older and Younger Brother. However, Indigenous inspiration was at the core of the game's spiritual premise as well, where animism and "Totems" are central to the setting and gameplay. The way these concepts are presented is trivializing and dehumanizing, but it is important to acknowledge that the appropriation present in Werewolf: the Apocalypse goes a lot deeper than the two Brother Tribes (even the term "Tribe" was meant to invoke a vision of Indigeneity compared to the previous setting in the line's use of "Clan"). Additionally, there is art throughout every generation of these gaming books that represents humans, wolves, and human-wolf hybrid forms wearing Indigenous regalia, including sacred items such as headdresses, or engaged in sacred rituals such as the Sun Dance. The list of problematic representations goes deep, and my examples only scratch the surface, but it is also important for me to note the positive impact that this had, particularly in the 90's.

Even though the primary contributors to these narratives were non-Indigenous authors, or in one case, a Pretendian, and another, a culturally disconnected author, by the time the Revised (or Third Edition) era of the books came around, White Wolf Publishing was actively engaged in cultural consultation.  While I do not believe cultural consultation makes a big difference on its own, it matters that the attempt was made, to a degree: while these efforts fall short of what needs to be seen in cultural representation, this was still ahead of most other gaming companies at this time.

Hired by Hunters Entertainment

In February of 2020 I was approached by one of the co-owners of Hunters Entertainment to be one of the primary authors for Werewolf: 5th Edition due to my work on other World of Darkness projects, and let's be honest, because I was capable of bringing a much needed Indigenous perspective to a gameline that was rooted in Indigeneity and rotting with appropriation and racist stereotypes. I was overall receptive to the invitation, largely because I was very passionate about the World of Darkness setting overall, and Werewolf in particular, due to the impact that 90's representation had on me when I was a younger gamer. I also felt hopeful that with a really hard rewrite of Indigenous aspects of the game that I could shift a lot of really painful aspects of the game into something that was a net positive for Indigenous representation. I will tell you now, more than anything, I was excited to rewrite the Younger Brother Tribe, because when separated from racist authors, their message is very empowering and real to my lived experience.

That said, I did not agree to join the project without first asking for reassurances. I said that I was not willing to write negative Native stereotypes. I would not use appropriative language, or generally engage in appropriative writing (which meant at minimum that the names of the Pure Tribes would need to change), and most importantly, that I would not not engage in writing that contributed to erasure. While the person who recruited me to work on the project was eager to work with me, he acknowledged that he was not sure he could get everything I wanted to see approved, but also promised to fight for everything I suggested as hard as he could. Additionally, he shared with me that the original setting pitch for W5 involved all of Younger Brother being slaughtered en masse in a massacre. I made it clear that this was exactly the kind of thing that I would not write.  I cannot remember if this was something he suggested to be changed before or after I was invited onto the project, but with some pushback it was changed.  However, I point this out because I want you, the reader, to understand how eager Paradox Interactive was to start with mass genocide and erasure as a foundation to the setting.  All that said, I cannot stress enough that I have had nothing but positive experiences with Hunters Entertainment, and none of the following concerns fall upon them.

The Sword of Heimdall

The first encounter the Hunters Entertainment team as a whole had with problematic guidelines for the W5 draft was the direction that Paradox Interactive wanted to go with the Sword of Heimdall. At the time, the suggestions from Paradox and Karim Muammar were that the Sword of Heimdall was going to represent the new major villain of the Werewolf setting, and that they were to also represent the far-right, fascist direction that Werewolf society so often turned toward. They were meant to be representative of how far the new concept of Hauglosk could take entire communities. However, the Sword of Heimdall was discussed interchangeably with the Get of Fenris as a whole, and more than once Muammar seemed to suggest that every member of this Tribe was guilty of the same attitudes espoused in previous editions from the Sword of Heimdall. Now let's not beat around the bush: the Sword of Heimdall are literal Nazis. They believe directly in white supremacy and don't shy from it. They wanted to cleanse impure elements from the Get of Fenris, including BIPOC people, other non-white ethnicities, women, neurodivergent Garou, and other disabled Garou.

The writing team found this approach problematic for several reasons. The first, and most obvious, was that the direction seemed to want to turn one of the most popular Tribes into a horrific stereotype of its most abhorrent faction. Whether or not Muammar’s goal was to turn them into villains, we could not imagine a world where fans of previous editions would get their hands on this book, and not look for a way to play one of their previous favorite groups, thus creating the issue of making a guide to playing Nazi. Even beyond that, it’s not as if historically there were not players who used the tools of the setting to play Black Spiral Dancers, why wouldn’t this draw people who actually wanted to role-play through these toxic, harmful politics? Further, and while this is less important, it left a bad taste in my mouth, the justification for this major shift in Werewolf lore seemed to change over each pass. At first, Muammar suggested that all Fenrir were Nazis/SoH.  Then, when he was provided with evidence that it was a small faction that was eliminated in the early 2000’s, he started to shift toward the idea that we should not follow the lore. Finally, when every single member of the writer’s team flatly refused to provide what would essentially be “a player’s guide to being a Nazi werewolf” the writing was on the wall about the end of our involvement with this product. More than once, he suggested that we were cowardly social justice warriors for being unwilling to work with this concept, even though there were several attempts to write a heroic version of the Fenrir that were focused on undoing these ills of the past.

Indigenous Erasure in Werewolf: 5th Edition

While the entire Hunters Entertainment writing team was handling the major, glaring issue of Paradox’s fervor to include a major Nazi element in Werewolf, I was personally dealing with the problematic approach to the Indigenous issues in the setting. The largest problem, for me, was in addressing Younger Brother’s issues, the history of non-Indigenous writers creating horrifically racist stereotypes, and what was valuable in the Tribal identity that should be saved and recentered. However, my attempts to do so were thwarted with every approach. I rewrote this Tribe four times, and offered three different versions of it to try to earn approval for a final write-up, but each time there was a lot of negativity directed towards my attempts and all them boiled down to this: Muammar felt that having two Tribes (both Younger and Older Brother) representing the “Indigenous population” was too many, and wanted them to only be focused on Older Brother, and that Younger Brother’s connection to a central, Indigenous identity, was undesirable because “other sources wrote them as having Siberian and European connections” and that future writing on this Tribe would require a lot of sensitivity…suggesting that one, Muammar wasn’t interested in doing the work to handle that level of sensitivity, and further, that he wasn’t interested in including me in future work, since I was involved with doing that at the time.

I want to take a moment to remind you that the work that was put into recovering Younger Brother started with “Let’s Kill Them Off” and at this point, through a combination of convincing and pleading, had been walked back to “They can live, but now they’re not connected to being Indigenous anymore” which is just representative genocide of a different variety. “Kill the Indian in him, and save the man.” It was also explicitly something I said I would not write about going into this project. Ultimately, my efforts did not get much further than this, with some specific exceptions I will cite below.

Karim Muammar’s Anti-Indigenous Positions

Muammar consistently and repeatedly communicated to the team in ways that were condescending and dismissive of our collective accomplishments and capabilities, but from my perspective, no one suffered as much significant derision as I did while discussing the changes I wanted to make to Younger and Older Brother in order to make their representation empowering and exciting.

In the pulled quote from the previous paragraph, I want to point out to you that Muammar, who had the title of Lead Editor on this project, refused to capitalize Native American. Further, he would often redline my work with edits to decapitalize my own uses of Native American, as well as the word Indigenous when referring to Indigenous peoples. While there are plenty of people who might want to argue about this, I will point out that both the AP style guide as well as the Chicago style guide (the one which I am most familiar with in my academic historical work) both call for Indigenous to be capitalized when referring to a people. Further, I challenge anyone to defend the consistent decapitalization of Native American. More importantly, the reason that these are standards in respected style guides, is because the English language has been used historically to oppress and erase ethnic identities, including Indigenous identities. By transforming adjectives into proper nouns, we are declaring that Indigenous and Native aren’t descriptors that can be applied to animals, plants, and soil, but real lived identities and culture groups.

When I was explaining to the Paradox team (which was mostly just Muammar) why it was important to change the names of these two Tribes from the appropriative (and offensive) ones used in the past, Muammar pushed back by defending the previously used Younger Brother name, even after reading my extensive research and explanation about how this would harm Indigenous communities and fans.

While doing so, he also decided that it was appropriate to refer to this entirely Native American tribe by the word “savages” a slur that has been specifically used to dehumanize Native Americans, and then mocked my rewrite that focused on presenting them as stewards of the land using Indigenous methodologies and praxes, instead of the “savage” racist stereotypes they were presented as in previous editions. Further, as in the above quote, even after it was communicated that the use of this term was problematic, he kept doubling-down to use it to refer to the Tribe.

Even though I worked hard to redefine Younger Brother through Indigenous theory, such as place-based theory, relational theory, and communal theory, Muammar either refused to recognize this work, dismissing it as simple, or else simply could not understand the importance of these changes. Either way, the choice is that he didn’t want them to change, or couldn’t comprehend why the change was important because of how entrenched in white supremacist thinking he is. Further, after the massive effort that I put forward to attempt to educate him and the rest of the Paradox team on these issues, the insistence on using offensive terms and belittling my work felt intentional. So let’s talk about the work I did that was above and beyond my job description: free cultural consulting work.

“Sensitivity” and Consultation

I have seen several misunderstandings of my role working on this project going around, so I want to make something very clear. I was hired to work on this project as an author, and nothing else. I was not ever hired to be a cultural consultant. I do not do cultural consulting work. While I feel that there are many creators and companies who hire cultural consultants with the best intentions in mind, their responses often fall short of what is needed, as no one is ever obligated to actually follow the advice of cultural consultants. Further, I think there are also many companies who choose to hire cultural consultants only to say “we did this minimal step, and that is enough” in order to ward off naysayers.

However, anyone who hires me gets some level of cultural consulting for free, because it comes out in my writing–in both what I won’t write and what I choose to center my writing around. In the case of Werewolf 5th Edition, however, it was far more involved than this. I came with a plethora of “I will not write X” because I knew the setting was so problematic.  A short list of my demands besides not being willing to write Indigenous erasure, was that we needed to change the names of the Pure Tribes (and the term Pure Tribe itself), we needed to change the word Totem to Patron, and also the Patrons of the Pure Tribes. We needed to move away from the term Metis for obvious reasons, and we needed to move away from the term Skin Dancers. I also specifically noted that there was a lot of cultural theft happening from the beginning of Werewolf until now that I wanted to address. The only way these issues were going to be addressed was to convince Paradox they were actual issues on the level of PR concerns, because nothing else was likely going to be considered. So in order to achieve this, I put in weeks worth of research, writing, and meetings with top level administrators with Hunters Entertainment so that they could bring this information to Paradox.  I never documented my hours, but I would guess that I did approximately 80-100 hours of what I could only describe as cultural consultation work for free that was outside the contract work I was hired for. Let’s be clear: I did this willingly because I was passionate about the positive changes I wanted to see in this product, because I believed that Werewolf’s historic ills could be turned toward non-toxic representation.

Besides my actual words, such as naming the Ghost Council, and arguably the name Gale Stalkers came from a combination of names I pitched to Paradox after Winter’s Teeth was denied, and several sentences and paragraphs that I have seen so far that appear so close to what I originally wrote that you could imagine they were just edited versions, my largest contribution toward the final version of Werewolf: 5th Edition was this work. The only reason the offensive, appropriated names were changed were because of hours of my work to convince them it needed to happen. The reason that the Gale Stalkers aren’t just dead and gone: again, I pushed against this. The reason that Skin Dancers, Totem, and Metis will not appear as canonical titles? I pushed against their unwillingness to alter these things (see Karim’s defense of Wen**** Tribe name above).

Further, and this is the biggest reason I decided to write this article before seeing the final version of the book, I want to mention that I was also included in discussions with Hunters Entertainment to potentially be part of the art direction team, especially to oversee depictions of Indigenous characters, regalia, and art, to ensure that it would be represented either respectfully or not at all. I decided I needed to speak as soon as possible after the artistic portrayal of Tāme Iti appeared in the Glass Walkers preview without his permission. There are many arguments surrounding this issue and I am not going to address everything, but ultimately, I can tell you that had I remained as part of the art direction team, and saw that, I would have questioned it immediately. Even if I didn’t recognize Tāme Iti immediately, I would have asked what the source was on the depiction of moko in that piece, because I am aware that this is a sacred form of art–and I had already discussed wanting to make sure things like Crinos in headdresses didn’t appear in the book (as had often happened in previous editions, particularly on a certain white-skinned character whose name rhymes with Steals-the-Past).

As time working on this project went on, and I went through rounds and rounds of trying to convince Muammar and Paradox that it was important to not steal Indigenous identities, art, and stories, and that a greater effort needed to be put in powerful and empowering Indigenous representation, and I constantly ran into refusals and criticisms that were clearly hateful toward Indigenous identities and peoples, not to mention the push to represent Nazism as a major part of the game setting, I grew increasingly frustrated and restless with feeling like I was trying to work on a challenging project while also defending my right to exist as the person I am at every turn. Eventually I turned to another Indigenous TTRPG and game creator to ask for advice, and after a long and difficult discussion, I came to the conclusion that I was going to talk to the Hunters administration team and tell them that if Muammar kept using slurs and other anti-Indigenous language and attitudes, I was going to need to step off of this project, because it was harmful to me on a personal level. In furtherance of this point, I have been avoiding doing any contract work at all where I can tell that I am wanted for my specific cultural perspective ever since, because this situation was so harrowing for me.

Unfortunately, before I could have this conversation, after one final draft of Younger Brother and Bone Gnawers (which had its own issues, but that is not the point of this discussion), before we received any other specific feedback, the Hunters Entertainment administrators announced to the writing team that Paradox had decided to take the book in-house, and would no longer need our services.

The main point I would like to leave you with, besides these few specific quotes (out of dozens and dozens) that Muammar made that were anti-Indigenous, is that there is often a big call to have more BIPOC voices in various entertainment industries, so that both our stories, perspectives, and unique views on how the universe and life works, can be included; so that an industry that is historically, harmfully Eurocentric, might turn toward new, healthier, and inclusive directions. And I agree with this call for change, but I implore you to consider the conditions that BIPOC creators often have to work under: doing cultural/identity work and consultation for free as part of being present, being subject to vicious refusals of our experiences and perspectives, and straight-up having slurs lodged against our work. I want to see these changes in the industries we love, including the gaming industry, but currently the people who are in charge, who have the most power, are severely hostile to our work and our perspectives. This is why, for example, works like Coyote & Crow were done with an almost entirely Indigenous group of creators, and led by Indigenous creators, because trying to work for and with this ugly, hateful, and xenophobic group of people is so often exhausting, both mentally and spiritually, and because no good changes end up being made.

I am glad the harmful, appropriative terms were removed from the setting. I am glad I was part of the fight to make that real. I am not so glad that I was treated with hostility and racism by Muammar for the effort and love I put into this work, and I am not so glad that I will certainly be reviled by one of the two communities I did this work for–the gaming community, and certainly the people in power in this industry–and I am also not so glad that I didn’t have the opportunity to properly acknowledge how much of Werewolf’s base themes and setting are twisted and tied-up in Indigenous appropriation without giving the proper acknowledgments.

More than anything, I hope that this story will help you, the fans, realize that there is a lot of darkness in these communities, and they won’t change unless you hold their feet to the fire.

Ánaagodzįįhł

J.F. Sambrano

[teecupangel]

What if desmond was reborn as the 5th auditore child? Like he was just a baby/toddler when the auditore were executed

Hey, nonny.

We can make Desmond be born on March 13, 1476 so he would only be months old when the Auditores are executed.

Wanna fuck with Desmond and the Auditores some more?

What if we keep Maria’s mental state after the execution and make her believe that the baby in her arms is Petruccio.

The only person who could remind her that she was holding and caring for her fifth child was Claudia and it was becoming harder and harder for her to keep trying to stay strong when her mother treating Desmond as Petruccio makes her think that she’s in the past and asking when her husband would be back or if Federico and Ezio be back from playing outside.

The final nail in the coffin is that Maria mistook Claudia as someone else, maybe an older sister that was already dead or even her old nanny who died when Petruccio was just born.

Ezio saw what was happening and pushed Claudia to managing Monteriggioni to keep her from spiraling.

It becomes apparent that Maria sees Giovanni in Ezio and Mario tells him that it might be better if they slowly separate Maria from Desmond.

It’s not doing either of them any good and making Desmond replace Petruccio was a fate that no child should ever shoulder.

So Ezio pretends to be Giovanni taking Petruccio for walks and tries to be there for his younger brother.

But being an Assassin made it hard for him to return home frequently.

He tries his best and he knows Claudia also tries to make their younger brother understand that they don’t see him as a replacement and that their mother is simply… confused at the moment.

That’s how Desmond grew up, pretending to be Petruccio when he’s with Maria Auditore.

Mario trained him while Ezio was running around but he couldn’t leave Monteriggioni because Maria starts to ask where Petruccio is whenever she doesn’t see Desmond for a few hours.

Ezio went to Firenze after journeying to Spain (and got entangled with Bonfire of the Vanities) when Maria finally realized that Desmond isn’t Petruccio. To be more exact, Desmond had turned 21 and Maria cried as she remembered that Petruccio would have never grown as old as Desmond.

At that point, Maria’s relationship with her youngest child was strained by her own guilt and grief while Desmond just accepted it because he loved Maria and a part of him believed that he should have done something more (even if he was still a baby, guilt does not care about one’s age)

Desmond starts doing Assassin work as well but goes rogue for a few months, returning with the remaining seals for Altaïr’s statue.

Desmond takes the armor for himself and just shrugged it off as Ezio’s birthday present or something equally unimportant and Ezio returned to Monteriggioni with… well…

A very awkward family reunion, that’s for sure.

So many things have happened at that point and, as much as he is happy to see his mother healing, he feels guilty for not being there for Desmond who just shrugs it off and tells him “I understand.”

“I understand.”

That was the worst phrase Ezio heard.

He kept hearing it from his younger brother.

At first he was relieved that his brother understood.

Then he realized that the phrase meant more than that to Desmond.

It was a resignation to his current situation.

And Ezio wasn’t really in the best place himself.

He was still grieving the death of Cristina who died while Ezio was in Firenze for Savonarola and his men so there was also a bit of guilt there.

So Mario suggested Ezio takes Desmond to the Vatican with him as a ‘trainee’ and Ezio agreed.

He tells Desmond that he never wanted him to be an Assassin, that he hoped he was the only one who had to carry the blood that drenched the Auditores’ blade.

Desmond just stares at him and goes…

“I understand.”

And Ezio knew that he failed being a brother to his youngest in this bloody path of vengeance he had taken.

[shinobushaori]

Hey dere 🤓. Could you do a Jealous Shinobu x Fem reader. The gist is Shinobu has been busy with helping patients and with Hashira work making reader feel alone. She talks to Shinobu about it but Shinobu just suggest to make friends with a hashira. Y/n ends up becoming bestfriends with Giyuu. Y/n tells Shinobu she made a hashira friend but didn’t say who bc Shinobu didn’t ask. Shinobu thought it was Mitsuri, until one day when coming back from a mission she notices Giyuu and reader hanging out. Reader is laughing loudly and Giyuu is smiling. Immediately already seeing Giyuu smile, upsets Shinobu but she boils in anger when realizing he’s smiling at reader. She marches in anger to them and tries getting in between them. Y/n’s confused and notices Shinobu’s odd behavior but doesn’t question her. Shinobu keeps on being touchy with Y/n infront of Giyuu making it awkward. Shinobu’s also bragging about their relationship to Giyuu. Eventually Giyuu leaves and Y/n immediately asks Shinobu why she’s acting like this. They fight a bit because Y/n finally made a friend and Shinobu’s all jealous. Y/n leaves to be alone and Shinobu thinks hard. Shinobu realizes how she’s been acting and feels bad so she tries apologizing to Y/n who is locked in her room.

A/N: My longest oneshot yet. Sorry this took a whole ass week to make!! I yapped at first when writing it then absolutely hated it and butchered it until it was just an ok for me. Theres a little change that tbh u wont rlly notice. I hope you like it!

UNEXPECTED FRIEND

- kochou shinobu x female!reader

warnings: none i think, lesbians wanting each other too much they create unnecessary chaos(/j)

word count: 5.7K

"Okay, can you stop that?!"

You sigh for possibly the 5th time this day and Aoi has had enough of your antics.

For the whole morning you've been gloomy, broody and absolutely pathetic, a stark contrast to your usual chirpy, mostly childish demeanor. She already does have an inkling of what could be likely upsetting you.. Well, more like who because there's only one person who could retract that much of a reaction from you.

Usually, she could not care less. Your relationship with Shinobu was not her business and never will be, she hopes. Rolling eyes thrown towards your direction when the two of you are acting unprofessional in front of patients, sure, that has happened and probably will more. But this? If she had to sit through your pathetic and absolutely not subtle way of sulking, she might just confront Shinobu herself.

Aoi pinches you and you recoil, snapping out of your trance before you eventually start tearing up.

"It's nothing, Aoi-chan.." You blink your blurred sight before looking down.

"It's just.." You bit your lip, "..she's been busy and I miss her, that's all."

The romantic development between you and Shinobu wasn't easy at all, never will be, you lament. She was a Hashira, a position many admired including yourself. They had many duties to attend to. Either slaying demons or patrolling in their supposed location. Not to mention the added work on your girlfriend, who had the proud title of the saviour doctor of the Demon Slayer Corps. Perhaps this was what attracted you the most.

She was selfless, caring, and endlessly talented. Catering to many, tending to their injuries and slaying demons along the way, all that with such a pretty smile. You've long accepted that there will be no such thing as endless peaceful days between the two of you as lovers. There will always be circumstances that need Shinobu and her limited attention.

But sometimes, you wish you could be selfish for once.

Make time pause or maybe just slower, so you could enjoy the moments you have with her and heal the longing you had in your heart. Wake up in the mornings with boring, mundane worries such as what to cook for your family, or how to stop Shinobu from being flirty in front of the girls. Not— worrying if you could see your lover be alive for another day after a hectic time at demon slaying work.

"You stupid girl, have you even talked about it with Shinobu-sama?"

You shrink in your place, silent.

Aoi shakes her head, scowling at you. "Well, you should! You should know by now that Shinobu-sama cares for you and would want you to open up rather than doing whatever it is you're doing!"

She takes the mountain of clothing on your side and glares at you. "So, go ahead and talk to her now!"

You flinch, heart tugging at her words. "Wha-what!? Now!? Aoi-chan, don't be ridiculous! With the amount of injured slayers this month, she's barely functioning as it is! No way, that's too much!"

Aoi rolls her eyes, "Fine!" She gives you an accusing point of her finger.

"But you better talk to her soon about it, okay!? Now, help me with these and quit sulking as well!"

"Ye-Yes!"

Aoi, as harsh her words are, she's a good kid you're glad to have as your family.

-

Aoi's words has stuck itself in your mind the whole day you did chores alongside the other girls and it wasn't long before night fell and you gathered the courage to talk to her.

As you heard a muffled, audible "Come in." You slid the door open and inhaled at the sight of Shinobu Kocho, in all her glory. She's still wearing her uniform despite it being already late into the night, she must have been too busy to change again.

You smile as you catch her eye, setting her warm dinner on her work table.

"Hey, beloved. I heated up your dinner."

She smiles at you and gives you a grateful nod. "I appreciate that, thank you."

You hum as you stood behind her, arms sneakily slithering around her head in a playful manner, lightly hugging her head from behind. You grin at the blush coating her cheeks.

"You've been here for so long. Why not take a break already after you finish dinner?" With me.

Shinobu seem to give it a thought, before glancing at the piling paperworks. She lightly grimace and you frown when she shook her head apologetically.

"Sorry, beloved." She spins around to give you a short kiss. "As much as I want to, I need some of these done tonight."

You nod grimly, trying to not make your disappointment obvious. "I understand, but don't you go overworking yourself, okay?"

Shinobu, who had always been good at reading you like an open book, caught on easily. She takes your cheek, caressing it with her thumb. You close your eyes, hand bringing up itself to clasp with her own. You take in the familiar aroma of wisteria that had always lingered itself around the woman and seem to ingulf you in her work office.

"[Name].. you can always talk to me about what's on your mind, okay?"

As usual, your composure easily crumbled under her intense gaze. Your shoulders drop and Shinobu stops the urge to coo at your protruding bottom lip.

"It's been lonely without you.."

Shinobu sighs, taking you in a warm embrace. She hears you sniff and her heart painfully tugs. Just as much as you, she's longed long for your presence as well. Wanting nothing more but to bask in the warmth and love you've always provided for her.

Alas, duty calls and instead she has to disconsolately spend her time away from you, who's usually busy with other chores as well.

Suddenly, your arms around her waist tighten as you rub your head further down her neck. Shinobu feels the bubble of laughter pop out, chuckling while stroking your flushed nape.

"You've missed me so much, huh?"

You groan, burying yourself even more. "Of course I do, Shino! I wanna cuddle with you so bad but you're always away.. it's so lonely!"

Shinobu pats your head sympathetically, "I'm truly sorry, [Name]. Y'know if you keep this cute act up, I might just ditch these and kiss you till sunrise."

You immediately recoiled from her touch, face flushed at the absurdity of her words. "Shinobu! That's too harsh! These paperworks are important for a reason!"

She weakly smiles at your words, well aren't you just confusing? She means that as lovingly as possible before giving up and teasingly gives your cheek a kiss. "Hm, you're right.. I'll continue.." She looks up at you expectingly and you redden more at the sight of her battling eyelashes.

"..with some motivation, perhaps?" You groan at her teasing tone, pushing her away and Shinobu simply giggles.

"But I know what might help you, [Name], sweets."

You hum, playing with her fingers and leaning onto her. "Help with what?"

"Your loneliness silly. I'm thinking of.. a friend maybe? I've seen that you.. don't really interact with anyone else other than the girls. That's not a good habit now, is it? You'll be totally friendless, [Name]~!"

You pout at her but nodded. She's right. Looking back, when you just started demon slaying, you preferred to keep things to yourself. Even Shinobu took time to fully invite you in her estate and become one with the family. After all, friendship was intimidating for you, especially in this kind of workplace where death is often the leading reason of friends separating.

The possibility of you having a friend outside of the Estate wasn't unappealing. Not at all. You guess you just don't know where to start and who to befriend.

As if reading your thoughts, Shinobu smiles and leans closer to your ear. Her warm breath worsens the red state of your skin. "Actually, I know someone you might get along with."

You perk up, tilting your head as you catch her purple tinted eyes. "Oh, really?"

Shinobu nodded, "Yes! Actually, they're a very open-minded individual. You'll get along just fine!"

Your eyes seem to sparkle and Shinobu giggles at this. "Okay, who is it? Can you introduce me to them?"

You blinked when your lover shook her head, the familiar grin stretching her lips easily inducing a whine from you.

"Shinobu..!!"

"Uh-uh," She takes your hand and brings it to her lips, trailing soft kisses on your flushed skin.

"You have to befriend them your own, I'm afraid. You need to be sociable, after all!"

You groan, leaning most your weight as you melt like a puddle beside her. "Ehh, but it would be easier-"

"Nope!" Shinobu chirps out and you sulk more.

She smiles and takes you by the cheeks, causing you to look back at her. "Just be yourself, okay? I'm sure the moment you two meet, you'll instantly gain a new friend!"

You sigh, tilting your head onto her hand. "Fine," You stare at her and her smile widens. "But in return, you gotta reserve some of your time for me okay?"

She chuckles at your cheeky words and nods, "Of course, I would want nothing more, my beloved."

-

You walk around the Butterfly Estate, visibly giddy on your feet.

Just not too long ago, you've finally finished all your assigned tasks! Although, double checking the patients was a bit difficult to do, since that roudy trio had invaded the rather peaceful environment of the mansion. Especially and specifically the two slayers, you grumble under your breath.

You've heard of these three, it seems that they occasionally get injured in missions a lot and it always happens when you're away. It wasn't a very good first impression, you concluded.

Actually it was a rather baffling situation to be in, in which one was asking for your hand in marriage despite your many endless attempts of saying that you've been spoken for. While, the other was as annoying as the former, firm on demanding a fight and trying to headbutt you. If it wasn't for the unbelievably patient third guy, you would've suffocated each of them, courtesy by their own pillow.

Either way, you're glad that was over. Thankfully, Aoi was there to save you and threaten them with no lunch, that seems to quickly shut the three up.

You hum a fun tune, thinking of ways you could somehow slither your way in Shinobu's lab, silently giggling at your thoughts.

Speaking of Shinobu, she was still pretty adamant on keeping the mystery person she told you about three weeks ago a secret. Simply waving your attempts of knowing more with a, "They'll visit soon!"

Heck, even the softest kisses wouldn't crumble her composure like it usually does. Gosh, that woman! She's so dreamy you might melt! You thought to yourself as you giggle more.

Although, slips still happened and you slowly knew more about your future friend. You assume they're a Hashira like her. Based on Shinobu's words, they often work together, that basically confirms it. And is in Shinobu's list of close friends as well. They also visit often and get along well with everyone!

You were pretty excited to meet them, they seemed fun to be around. Maybe they'll distract your simple mind for a while until you can't handle it anymore and scratch Shinobu's door until she stops working.

You really hope your desperation won't come to that point, fingers crossed.

You were fully immersed in your thoughts, occasionally chuckling by yourself. Well, until you swerved a corner and suddenly planted face first on something.

Or, wait.. someone?

"Oh, sorry."

You blink, taking a step back as the stranger spoke with a monotone voice. You bowed your head quickly, "I'm sorry for bumping you, sir!"

The man, who was notably a slayer like you was wearing a two-tone haori. One burgundy, the other yellow green with a unique pattern, with blue eyes and black hair tied up to a ponytail. He simply nod once and cleared his throat.

"It's fine."

You both silently stand still, facing each other and you sweat profusely under his intense gaze- or rather his blank one?

Seeing the man having no intention to move whatsoever, you cough to interrupt the silence. "So, uhm.. are you injured, just visiting.. orr??"

Seeing you tilt your head, the man blinks. "Ah," He slowly raises his arm and you suppress the urge to facepalm seeing the terribly bandaged bloody hand. How did you not notice that.

Immediately, you tell him to follow you and he does. You lead him into one of the more quiet rooms and gestures for him to take a seat. He silently did so and you secretly grimaced at the loud silence.

"So, uh.." You gulp, trying to see if smalltalk would work.

"You come here often?"

He blinks at you as your fingers did a quick work on his hand, untying the previous bloodied bandages.

"Sometimes."

You awkwardly give him a glance as he plainly replies, before you nervously chuckle.

"Right, so did this bad cut come from a mission?"

You look down at the wound and it wasn't exactly a very bad cut. It was thankfully only a bit deep and only seem to bleed a lot due to the poorly done wrapping. Still, your mouth involuntarily said so and the man didn't seem to really care much.

As blank as ever he replies, "Training. The wooden sword was a hassle."

You nod, taking the newly set bandages you set aside and started to wrap it around the cut after you thoroughly cleaned it. "Oh, yeah. Pretty relatable. I often get small splinters too, Shinobu always teases me for it. " You smile at the memory of her giggling at your misery while taking her time to slowly pick out the small wood on your skin.

You hear him huff, as if suddenly annoyed. You were confused but chose to focus on your current work. With quick precision, you softly tightened the white material and hum as you straightened yourself, facing the black haired man with a polite smile.

"Alright, that's all! Although, you need to come by often to get these regularly changed." You put away the previous bandages before continuing, watching him eye his hand. "Then, I'll give you a small cream which will help with the irritation afterwards."

He gives you a slow nod, "Thank you, I appreciate it."

Your smile widens and suddenly Shinobu's words enters your mind. Hey, isn't this a good opportunity to befriend someone? The guy looks nice, not one for conversations but you don't mind it! With a new objective in mind, you happily reply. "No problem! I'm [Name], by the way!"

He went silent for a few seconds, enough seconds for your heart to tug and for you to quickly regret saying anything.

"Tomioka Giyuu."

The man, now named Giyuu in your head replies. You nod, happy to get his name but your mind suddenly blanked in realization, the name suddenly being familiar to you.

Tomioka.. Giyuu? As in.. Water Hashira Giyuu?

Your eyes almost plucked out itself recognizing his name. Instantly, your gaze settles itself on his uniform and eyes widened even more seeing his golden buttons. In actuality, he is that Giyuu!

In a state of panic, you quickly bow your head. "Hashira-sama! I-I wasn't aware, I apologize!"

Giyuu was quick to be caught off guard by your sudden change. He stiffly sat still as you continued to deeply bow your head.

"Uhm.."

Finally, you straightened yourself to face him. "Uh, oh! Right, I'll get you a personal room..!"

The man sweatdrops and quickly interrupts you. "That won't be necessary, I'll be leaving soon."

You purse your lips, "Well, If you insist.."

How unlucky! To think the person you bumped into was a Hashira! Thankfully, it wasn't the Serpent Hashira or worse! The Wind! Those two didn't have the best reputation, especially with lower ranks. Although, you know Shinobu will quickly be by your side, you'd rather not get into that kind of situation.

As your lover easily resurface herself in your thoughts, you were quick to relax on your place. Seriously, you're grateful it was Giyuu who you met. What a nice pal.

Wait.

Wait...

A Hashira? Someone you could easily get along? Possibly friends with Shinobu?

"U-Uhm!" You, once again, break the silence making Tomioka look away from his hand, facing you with a small tilt of his head, indicating for you to go ahead.

"Do you.. happen to be close with Kocho Shinobu?"

Hearing her name, Giyuu visibly deadpans but you were too busy staring with sparkling eyes. He looks away and shifted around his seat in discomfort.

"Yes." Was his short reply and your eyes only shines more. He furrows his brows in confusion.

Meanwhile, you were inwardly celebrating. Thoughts all over the place. What an amazing coincidence! The Hashira you accidentally face planted into was Shinobu's mystery friend in the end! Isn't this practically a good sign that the two of you will be good friends after all? As always, Shinobu's right!

Giyuu instantly jolts when you took his hand, shaking it rapidly with a wide smile, "Giyuu-san!"

"Uhm, what is it?"

"Let's be friends, please!"

-

Shinobu breathes out a sigh of relief.

Finally, after the seemingly endless pile of paperwork overflowing around her desk, she has now finished reading over the last one. Just her signature and she'll get her well-deserved break.

And as the pen hovered above the messy sign, she immediately slammed it against the table, breathing out a tired exhale. Shinobu feels an exhausted smile stretch her lips. A week's worth of paperwork, ultimately finished. Unless there's more to come, maybe another order for a set of glass due to the mysterious broken window by the ward, perhaps? Highly likely knowing the current trio residing the estate. Aside from that, nothing else should come in for a whole week.

And she is beyond joyous.

Shinobu stretches her limbs, groaning when her back pops a satisfying muscle. Alright, now that she's free (from paperwork only) for the rest of the week, she contemplates what to do next. Thankfully, she expected this moment and have already requested a break from her demon slaying career. If everything is in order, her work should only consist of being the master of the house and doctor duties.

'Mm..' She looks over her window and sees the bright blue sky and white fluffy clouds hovering over them. 'I suppose it's a bit too early for sleep..'

The Hashira decidedly went out of her office to check on the other residents of the mansion to see if the girls were doing well and particularly, how you've been doing.

To be frank, you've been more distant for the last few days. Well, distant was a bit of a stretch. Shinobu thought while giggling. If she put it bluntly, you weren't as clingy as you usually were. Not that she's complaining since it did help with completing her work but it's just worrying that's all. She's aware though that this must be due to the friend you've gained a few days ago.

Truly, she was proud of you. While you were a friendly creature, often chatting with patients to ease their nerves, it never really went past acquaintances. So, imagine her happiness when you suddenly barged into her office, mindlessly chattering about your new best friend? My, what a surprise it was. Although, she couldn't even comprehend your babbles as you seem to talk faster than she could hear, she's still overjoyed for you.

Did she mention she was also surprised? Shinobu didn't know Mitsuri had already visited the estate. Seriously, that girl is hard to ignore, much less not notice. At the same time, she had to consider that she practically locked herself inside her office so it shouldn't be shocking she didn't hear the usual squeals and shouts echoing around the place.

Either way, she's still happy for you. She's been basically edging you on about your future friendship with the Love Hashira, staying rather vauge on her depiction on the pink haired woman. There were a few close calls but nothing she could easily wave away with a few tender touches.

She grins when the sound of laughter reached her ears, noting it was coming from the rehabilitation room. Maybe training with those troublesome trios?

However, just as she was about to step inside, someone suddenly collided all together onto her.

"Oh! Sorry, Shinobu-sama!" The triplets voiced out apologetically, looking up at her.

"Oh my, be careful girls. What's with the hurry?" Shinobu smiles at them, chuckling at the obvious dampness on their hair and clothes, the bitter aroma of brewed medicine surrounding the three girls.

"Ah, we were-!" Just as Naho was about the explain, your loud laughter suddenly cuts them off and Shinobu blinks when you were basically coughing and crying. She suppress a laugh of her own while the three girls didn't bother and laughed alongside you.

"We're actually just playing around right now! Kanao and Aoi are making lunch so we decided to enjoy ourselves a bit.." She thanks Kiyo for her explanation and was just about to send them off when, "Oh, and we're with Tomioka-sama as well!"

She tilts her head, looking at Naho. "Oh? Tomioka-san is here?"

The triplets nodded, "Yes! He visited earlier."

What a surprise indeed. To think that klutz visited without even bothering on greeting like a normal person should, he will never change, will he? Not very shocking knowing that aloof guy.

She inwardly sighs, letting the girls clean up after themselves and finally entering the room where she found you folded in the middle of the space, body uncontrollably trembling from laughter.

"G-Giyuu, that's- pftahah-!" She couldn't help but grin wider at your current state.

"Having fun, are we?"

You breathed out heavily and looked up before gasping outloud seeing Shinobu, weakly reaching out to her, "'Nobu! Ah- You can't believe what this guy said- pfttt-!" Once again, you fell into a shivering mess, coughing between your laughters.

Shinobu shook her head, walking towards you. She was about to tease your shameless act when she paused in her place, stunned at the sight of the man beside you, usually so reserved and stoic, firm on being by himself yet is currently smiling softly at you as if you've hung the moon and stars.

Suddenly, her chest tightens before an eye unconsciously twitches itself.

You continue to be all sprawled out on the floor, chest heaving and slowly riding out your giggles. Then, you shouted an exhausted cry. "Hah! Gosh, Giyuu! You could've worded that betteraAH-!?"

Both you and Giyuu blink when Shinobu instantly snatched you upright, sight dizzying and air being knocked out of your lungs from the sudden grab. "Mmf-! Shino..Shinobu?"

Her fingers hooked around your waist, chin planting itself on your shoulder as you hear her purr and you flushed almost immediately, especially when you were facing Giyuu who simply deadpans at the two of you.

"U-Uhm!? Sh-Shinobu, why are you..?"

"Hm?" She leans closer to give your cheek a kiss, eyes intentionally locking with Giyuu's before it catches your widened ones. She relishes on the red tint on your skin with a smile resembling that of a cunning cat. "Can't I miss you, my beloved?"

You bashfully looked away, "Well, you, you can but Giyuu is-"

"Oh!" Shinobu smirks. "You were here all along, Tomioka-san? My, I didn't notice! You're basically too plain to see, much less recognize! Now, that's just sad, hm~?"

"Mm." The guy simply hums, lips compressing in a thin line. Shinobu feels a vein popped when he basically ignored her to look at you, who's still as flustered as ever.

"Right, uhm. Me and Giyuu were just-"

Her hold tightens around your waist and you tilt your head in confusion.

"..me and Giyuu were just talking about Tanjiro and the others!"

She raises a brow, "Is that so?" Then she faces Giyuu again. "Well, why don't you go entertain the trio and give my wife and I some alone time, hm? Tomioka-san?"

You jolted, steam leaving your head. "W-Wife!? But we're not married..?"

She giggles and held you closer. "Not yet~!"

"Shinobu!"

You clear your throat, trying to keep yourself upright, quickly failing as Shinobu keeps you tightly in place. "Anyways, that's not how you should treat your close friend, right?"

Shinobu felt the urge to gag, "Friend? Tomioka? Him?" She points at the poor blank guy, who remained entirely unfazed until he realized what you said.

You nodded, "He's the friend you told me about right? You're right, he's really nice to be around!"

Giyuu blinked and tilted his head, "..you see me as your close friend, Kocho?" He was surprised that not one but two people actually became his friend.

Although, he was quick to take it back when Shinobu looked absolutely disgusted behind your back as you obliviously smiled and cheered their so called friendship, entirely missing the obvious hostility radiating from her.

"So, he's the best friend you've been telling me about, beloved?"

You nodded with a grin, "Yup! We've been hanging out these past days!" Your words worsens the brewing distaste in her stomach. If she found Giyuu to be someone she somehow tolerated, that's all gone now.

"Ah, is that so? A few days could hardly compare to our endless time together, right?" You tilt your head in confusion, of couse it was, that shouldn't be a question in the first place.

Shinobu gleefully smirked at the man's direction, "Did you hear that, Tomioka-san? You must be unaware of the years we've been together, huh? You can say you're jealous, it's fine!"

Giyuu rolls his eyes, sighing afterwards, "I don't care."

"Heyy, no need to bottle it up! You'll eventually find someone else, don't worry! You should worry about your lack of decor for now!" She giggles at his clear misery.

This goes on for about 20 minutes. A one-sided conversation full of verbal jabs from Shinobu and an occasional grunt from a tired Tomioka. You stood between them as they banter, growing increasingly confused before restless at the amount mean comments the woman had said that not even you can ignore nor wave as playful.

"See? Now, that's just-"

"Shinobu."

The woman paused, head snapping towards you as you frown at her. You sent Giyuu an apologetic smile, standing up at your place and taking Shinobu with you.

"Giyuu, can we excuse ourselves? I think we'll take lunch first. The trio might eventually come here for their training so you can spend your free time with them." The man blinks and stares as you immediately left the rehabilitation room, dragging an unusual quiet Shinobu.

"..did I do something wrong?"

-

The doctor pursed her lips, had she gone too far with her words? She inwardly sighed and cursed for allowing herself to let her emotions get loose.

In an attempt to stop your sulking state, she pulls you in the opposite direction causing for you to halt.

"[Name]-"

"Shinobu, what was that?" You questioned with furrowed brows. "I know you have tendencies to tease people but that was a bit too much."

The woman stayed silent in her place as you continued, slowly growing agitated. "You were being rude!"

"..was I?"

You scoff at her sarcastic tone, "Yes, Shinobu. I thought you would've stopped at the ninth insult but you didn't!"

You sigh before rubbing your neck,  you didn't wanna cause an argument right now. "I'm sorry for shouting but that was really an inappropriate behavior to show towards our friend."

You placed a hand on her shoulder, rubbing her tense form away. "But I know that you might just be tired, so go rest before we have this talk, okay?"

Before Shinobu could open her mouth, you spun and walked away. Not leaving any time for a counter argument. The woman hissed, brushing her bangs upward in distress.

She really took it too far, huh?

-

You placed your folded sheets aside, thoughts still lingering at your lover who you had been avoiding for two hours now. Although, it felt childish, you were truly upset at how mean she was. Was she not happy that you gained a friend after a while? You tisked, of course she is, you shouldn't think of that.

Letting out an exhale, you stood from your place and walked towards your door, wanting to take a fresh breather on the garden and stare at the koi pond as long as you possibly could.

But as you opened your door, you blinked seeing Shinobu with her arm raised, as if about to knock.

Before you could speak, she pulled you in an embrace. One, in which you almost immediately melted on. Curse muscle memory!

".. I did it, I apologized."

"Huh?" You unintelligently replied. Body as stiff as a rock, leaning most your weight on her.

Her arms around your neck tightened as the woman sighed on your neck.

"I apologized to Tomioka."

"Oh." You stayed silent before a smile slowly crept on your face, arms slithering around her waist as you tightly held onto her like she was your lifeline. She could be and she is.

Shinobu exhaled, almost sounding so lovingly, "Yes, I did." She left the hug to face you, pausing to stare at the goofy smile that stretched her lips with one of her own. "..now stop being mad at me?"

You giggled at her lowkey pleading and cute expression, it was so unusual on her and yet you loved it anyways. You pulled her by the cheeks to lock lips, instantly feeling her smile into the kiss as it slowly deepened.

She pulled away, slightly heaving. "Don't ever do that again." You tilt your head, grin widening.

"Be mad at you?"

"Make me apologize to Tomioka." Shinobu shuddered.

You snorted while Shinobu smiles, caressing your cheek in a way that instantly caused your skin to be tinted red.

"But that too." Again, she pulled you in a soft kiss, one that screamed nothing more but love and adoration you had for each other.

From the start, this is what Shinobu should've done, in order to immediately cease every occuring thoughts of you possibly straying away from her.

And it worked. She thought of nothing else but you and your warm touches as she pushed you further inside your private room and closed the door behind. Giggling at your stunned expression.

"I promised to reserve my time to you, didn't I?"

-

+BONUS SCENE!!

"Ah, is that so, Tomioka-san?" Tanjiro spoke while munching on some crunchy snacks given by the triplets and Aoi. The three of them were just about to start training but when they went inside the room, they were surprised to see Giyuu sitting alone in the middle of the space with nothing other than the table full of watered down medicine in front of him, in which he calmly stared at.

Zenitsu was immediately spooked at how eerie the guy looked when in reality he was just being lonely on his own. Meanwhile, Inosuke was instantly driven to win against him in a tea game and sat on the other side, demanding to fight but went out completely drenched in nasty medicine.

Thankfully, everything calmed down and they sat down together to eat for lunch as Giyuu retells the previous interaction that happened.

"They must have been hungry! Yeah, that must be it!"

Zenitsu sneers, looking smug as if he knew something that they don't. "You're so naive, Tanjiro. It is clear that you just got away between their romance!! Of course guys like you couldn't tell." He spat out some food from his mouth.

Giyuu and Tanjiro tilted their heads in unison and confusion. "Ehh, really?" Tanjiro said.

Inosuke scoffs, "What the fuck is romance?" He roughly shoved the food in his mouth.

Zenitsu huffs, ignoring the disgusting boar and pointing an accusing finger towards the three guys in front of him.

"Look! When two people are in a romantic relationship, they should only focus on each other! You getting in the way would only result to either getting beaten up in a pulp or rejected by the girl!"

Tanjiro pouts, "But Tomioka wasn't aiming for one of them romantically, right?" He looks at Giyuu and the man nods.

Zenitsu simply rolls his eyes, "It doesn't matter! That's why when trying to befriend girls, always check if they have a partner or not! You can't be too sure if their partner is terrifying and scary!"

He remained oblivious to the widened eyes of the other guys in front of him and confidently continued on relying his experiences.

"Especially someone pretty and nice like [Name]-san! Pretty girls always pair up with absolute maniacs, I swear! That's why you should be careful of them!"

"U-Uh, Zenitsu you should stop.."

He continued to ignore Tanjiro's pleas, only confused when it seemed like there was a shadow forming on him from behind.

"Don't deny the truth, Tanjiro! Do you know how many times I have been punched either by the gut or with words because of their awful partners!?! Shinobu-sama is pretty and all but she's absolutely frightening!"

"Oh, am I now, Zenitsu-kun~?"

A cold sweat dripped down Zenitsu's temple as a familiar chirpy voice rung. He started to tremble before slowly twisting his head and an absolute horrified expression etched on his face upon seeing Shinobu standing and looking down on him with a dark shadow on her face.

"Zenitsu!?"

Shinobu ignored the chaos that ensued when Zenitsu instantly fainted on his spot with Tanjiro immediately going towards him.

Instead, she strode towards Giyuu's direction who grew restless and uncomfortable at the way Kocho stared at him blankly.

Just before he could open his mouth, Shinobu cuts him off. "I'm sorry that I insulted you." Her tone was definitely far from apologetic.

And slowly, a polite smile reached her face as she patted Giyuu's shoulder. "You may continue being friends with my [Name], okay?"

Not bothering on hearing a response, she walked off the room, leaving the ruined peaceful atmosphere.

Giyuu blinked before a small smile slowly stretched his mouth.

[functionofjules]

At Last

Pairing: Five Hargreeves X (She/her) Synopsis: (Taking place at the start of Season 2) Y/n finds herself alone in the sixties. Just as she begins to give up hope of ever getting home to her husband, Five, she’s pleasantly surprised. A/N: Reader has healing powers which lead to enhanced abilities like endurance and strength. Aged up Five in my interpretation. Feeling nostalgic after the series finale.

I slam to the ground with a force that could rival an elephant cracking my spine. Luckily enough, I have a tendency to avoid the repercussions from a fall of such heights. I can practically feel my cells regenerating already.

My tattered Umbrella Academy uniform that I borrowed from Allison’s closet upon Five and I’s arrival is reeking of the events of the last week. I’m not particularly fond of it and due to my lack of personal hygiene lately, I think I may be due for an outfit change.

I observe my surroundings. It seems I’m far away from home. By that I mean directly next to a dumpster.

I cautiously make my way into the street and take note of the vintage style of clothing. This indicates I’ve been dropped somewhere between the 50s-60s. This is confirmed when I steal a glance at a newspaper dated March 5th, 1960. At this point I feel myself begin to hyperventilate. Not necessarily because of the date but because I can’t seem to find a single Hargreeves sibling, most importantly my husband, Number Five.

I stagger backward until my back hits a wall that I slide down. Just as the tears begin to pour, a figure casts a shadow over my hunched position. I look up in hopes of a familiar face but am only met with a stranger. She has soft blonde hair framing her face which honestly reminds me of that actress, Florence Pugh, from the only film Five and I had time to see.

In pitying tone accompanied by her southern drawl she asks “You okay, Pumpkin? What’s the matter? You look like you ain’t doing too hot.”

I let a shaky breath escape and contemplate how much information I should give this woman. There’s no way in hell I’m explaining how my husband and I just attempted to stop the end of the world only the end up being separated from him and the rest of his family. So I settle for the next best thing.

“I’m a little lost,” I admit “My family and I got separated and I have nowhere to go.”

“Aw you poor thing!” She exclaims, bending down to my level and taking my hand “You want to come with me? I can getcha something to eat and figure things out from there.”

I nod, standing to my feet.

“That sounds nice. Thank you…” I falter realizing we hadn’t properly introduced ourselves.

She takes both my hands in hers and says “Charlotte, but you can call me Lottie.”

“I’m Y/n,” I say, offering my first smile since getting thrown out of that portal “Y/n Hargeeves.”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

It’s been three years since I was dropped in Dallas and a lot has changed.

Lottie and I live together I her two bedroom loft apartment and work together everyday at the local diner. It was quite different from my work at the Commission but not to brag, I’ve developed a very impressive coffee pouring time.

I haven’t heard anything from Five. At first I figured he’d come along right after me but he never did. A part of me holds out hope he got dropped somewhere further ahead in the timeline then me or got caught up with someone putting out a hit on him but I’m losing that hope. But I’m okay here with Lottie. I’ve built myself a nice life in Dallas.

I had just expected it to be another normal day at the diner. I tied my apron in a tight knot around my waist, told Lottie to hurry up, and we began to rush down the street together.

I had told Lottie a little about Five. How we were in love and we always protected each other. She knows better than anyone how much I miss him.

We rush into the diner with the ring of the bell behind us and ran to the back to put away our bags. Just as we’re about to head through the door my manager calls, “Y/n! I need you to give one of the chefs a hand with the pantry inventory.”

I shrug “Okay boss!”

A shoot Lottie a wave and run back to help our chef, Dave, count various condiments.

I was still in there after about fifteen minutes when Lottie ran back with a strange look in her eye. She slammed the door with such force I almost slipped off the stool I was balanced on.

“Sorry!” She apologizes, but I can tell she can’t contain herself for long “There’s a guy asking for you.”

I raise a brow “Asking for me? Is it that Harry guy again? Because he gives me the creeps, I’m really not in the mood to-“

She shushes me

“No it’s not Charlie! I really think you ought to get out there. I’ll finish up back here for ya!” She cuts me off, practically shoving me out the door.

“Okay, okay!” I say, chuckling at her intensity “I’ll go! Don’t get your panties in a twist.”

I think nothing of what could be on the other side of that door cause I know it’ll be the same thing everyday. I snatch my notepad out of my apron and the pen from behind my ear.

“Welcome in! What can I do for you today?” I say. I was about to list off the specials until I look up and see Luther Hargreeves sat next to…”Five?”

He blinks behind the counter saying “Hello Darling-“

I don’t let him get to far before a tackle him with kisses. Every inch of his face is smeared in my burgundy lipstick and it takes everything in me to stop there. I let him stand to his feet as tears spring to my eyes.

“I can’t believe you’re here! I can’t believe-“ And then the anger sets in “I can’t believe you!”

His brown furrows as I begin to land strikes to his chest.

“You left me! You abandoned me for three years! I was terrified I was never going to see you again! How could you do something so reckless!” I tell. There’s a large part of me that knows it isn’t actually his fault but I choose to neglect that right now. My hits become harder and it’s only then he gently grasps my wrists and lays his forehead against mine.

Throughout my whole fit, he is shushing me and whispering “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry my love. I didn’t want to. I’m so sorry. Please forgive me.”

I finally cease my attacks and begin to breathe easily again. Once I’m calm I turn back towards my brother in law.

“Hi Luther.”

“Oh,” he says with an awkward attempt at a smile “Hello!”

Just then, Lottie reveals herself from behind the kitchen doors and walks over. She scans the scene and smirks at me, saying “Hey pumpkin! Care to introduce your friends?”

I chuckle introducing everyone “Lottie, this is my husband, Five Hargreeves. And this is my brother in law, Luther.”

“Alright!” She replies with a smile “Who wants coffee?”

[littlegreenfag-archive]

Regarding @littlegreenfag

Tldr: Adina, known by the Tumblr urls littlegreenfag and prksoda, has spent the past several years lying about many facets of their life. The list of lies includes, but is not limited to, being half manouche Romani, being Jewish, and being descended from Holocaust survivors.

I never wanted to have to do this. I’ve spent months trying my best to encourage Adina to come clean themself. My methods were not ideal. I should not have used anonymous messages. I used to be friends with them, I should've talked to them openly as their friend. I also should’ve attempted to be less aggressive at times, even though I think it is incredibly reasonable to have felt the way I felt when I was sending some of those messages. I understand and regret both of these things. Unfortunately, since Adina has deactivated @littlegreenfag, I cannot provide links or screenshots to every ask of mine that they responded to, only those I saved at the time. I will do this later, upon request. This post is already going to be enough of a monster without them.

Though the last day has been a complete nightmare, I am satisfied with one thing: Adina came clean about everything, even if not publicly. My worry was always with the though of having to reveal their personal information, as many of the things they’ve lied about would require me to, functionally, dox them. Though it's technically all public, I would much rather that no one who doesn't already have access to this information gain it.

So, why am I writing this post? For those of you who were on Adina’s blog last night, you may have seen this post. I was also able to save a capture of their blog on the Internet Archive. Here is a screenshot that I took around when the post was first published. Apologies for the formatting.

To summarize, Adina begins to by admitting to a small lie, that they were born in Chicago, before admitting that they had been lying about their race. Though it was not present at the time of the blog's deletion, I would like to note that Adina had the phrase "jewish and half-romani" in their blog's bio for a very long time. This phrase was quietly removed after I sent the first anon message telling them that I was aware of their lies, on March 16th 2024. This can be seen on the Wayback Machine, by looking at the capture taken on March 5th, 2024, in comparison to the capture taken on March 24th, 2024.

That is what you may have seen. However, it is not the only major lie Adina has told. After suggesting Adina should turn off anons, I sent them another ask with my blog name visible, telling them that I could tell everyone about the other lies for them, if they wished to log off and be done with it. They messaged me privately, and this is the resulting conversation.

I apologize for the block of images, but I figured it was necessary to include the entire conversation. Here, Adina openly admits to not being Jewish. Adina has spent months receiving social benefits for claiming to be Jewish, and they've even used this claim to support arguments. Truth be told, Adina has one Jewish great-grandfather. How Adina expected me to believe they would know about this without knowing his surname, I will never know. However, I should emphasize that Adina is not Jewish by the standards of any main movement of Judaism. Orthodox and Conservative look for an unbroken line of Jewish women, while Reform asks that you be raised Jewish by a Jewish parent. Adina is descended from a Jewish man who converted to Catholicism and raised his children Catholic.

Regarding the Holocaust claim, I understand hat Adina did not directly address this. I will say that I find it suspicious that they deactivated as soon as I mentioned it, but they technically never confirmed it was a lie. However, with the information that:

The ancestors they mention as being survivors or victims quite literally do not exist and

Their Jewish ancestor was born in the United States well before WWII

I believe it is quite safe to say this was also a lie. My screenshots of their claims come mostly from their Reddit account, which is now deleted.

It is absolutely ghoulish to me to create fake relatives so that you can pretend they were tortured and killed during the Holocaust. All to receive sympathy.

Though there are many, many other lies Adina has peddled, such as being a child of divorce and having a dead biological mother, I don't think any of them matter much in the grand scheme of things when these are the other lies that have been told.

It is also worth noting that this is a pattern of behavior from Adina. As some of you who followed them may know, back in 2019, a blog was created with the intent of calling them out for lies. Frankly, this blog, @prksodalies , is what put me on to Adina's trail in the first place. Though I believe that several of the things Adina was accused of on this blog are downright cruel to accuse someone of without evidence, the fact that there were so many smaller obvious lies made me very uneasy. What specifically made me curious was the post, here, where Adina claims that they are half Lebanese. Obviously, this did not make a ton of sense with the half Roma and half Ashkenazi Jewish Adina we all knew. As it turns out, this was one of the very few shreds of truth from Adina. They're a quarter Lebanese on their father's side, and other than that and a Jewish great-grandfather, are of mostly Polish and German descent.

This being a pattern of behavior, alongside the way Adina behaved in messages with me, tells me that this will likely unfortunately not be the last time this person creates a Tumblr blog with a fabricated life story. I feel immense guilt at the thought that they may continue to swindle and hurt people, and that I will never know or be able to help again.

To everyone who was friends with this person and has been hurt by their actions, I am truly, truly sorry. This has been an absolutely miserable experience for me and I can't imagine it's much different for any of you. If you have questions, I'll be available for a least a few hours. I do not want to share any of their personal information, but I will share what I need to (privately) if some of you need or want more information.

[fervidgrey]

Ok I'm obssed with Jo. I have a request. Reader is being annoyed by some creepy guy in the street and Togame just sneaks up and puts him in a sleeper hold. Dude taps out but Jo makes him take a nap anyway. If he did some shit like that in front of me, I'd drool. I love him. Send help 😩❤️❤️

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 Please enjoy my love! <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

LONG DAY, LONGER NIGHT

Pairing: Togame Jo x Reader

Rating: Mature.

Word count: 6400~

Note: Assault in the beginning (not with Togame), no use of y/n, no beta, biting, mating press, drinking, cream pie, overstimulation.

The beeping of your phone timer was the signal your closing tasks needed to end soon. You swipe at the timer, and set one more for the next 10 minutes- then you would be free. You had spent all day working at a cafe alone, both of your coworkers calling out over some family emergency for the 5th time in two weeks. While you understood people had stressful lives working alone until closing was awful in this area, especially on a Friday night.

With a huff you quickly close out the register, seal up the money earned, then drop it in the safe in the back office. Taking one last glance around you, smile as your timer goes off. While you did not appreciate doing this work alone, you were rather fast at it. You walk over to your phone, swipe off the final timer then head over to the company computer to clock out. Your punch reads OUT: 10:48PM making your grumble, the store had closed back at 9PM. A huge sigh escapes your lips as you come to terms with it being partytime on the streets at the moment. Tons of people would be bar hopping right now, and your tiny apartment happened to be next to a long string of bars.

As you reluctantly lock yourself out of the cafe's front door, and safely, then face the darkening street. You can already hear the distant thump of music and the buzz of tipsy laughter floating through the cool night air. Immediately, a drunk man bumps into your arm, muttering something about his kids but continues on without speaking to you. You stare at the man making sure he doesn’t turn around.  With a soft huff you glare at nothing in particular, fully annoyed at the world before setting a steady pace to your home. There was a small part of you that would love to sit down and drink with someone, but your solo shift zapped away all of your energy, and you had no one to call. So now, all you want now is a hot shower, some snacks, and the comfort of your bed.

After several minutes of walking down the poorly-lit sidewalk you finally see the street your modest second-floor apartment resides on. However as you get closer, the louder the party sounds become. Groups of rowdy bar patrons stumble past, a small handful spill their drinks while loudly sharing drunk stories. Your spine stiffens as you prepare to enter the fray. While you didn’t think anyone would bother you, it has happened several times- and each time ended with the police being called to walk you the rest of the way home.

With a deep breath you step forward and march into the crowd, trying to blend in. You weave, and dodge a few hands that come your way with ease, after all, most of them were already piss drunk. You glance up, noting the bar you are passing, 10 left to go. You step over a man's legs as he lays on the ground, mumbling to himself, and this seems to be where your smooth travels end. While looking down at the man’s legs you do not notice the man walking right at you, likely assuming you would move- and slam into him. The collision was enough to make you blink, and feel a bit dazed but his hand snapped you back to reality. You look at the man confused, even angry as he grabs your forearm with enough force to make your body curve down- trying to relieve pressure.

"Hey, fucking watch where you're goin’!" the man slurs, his grip tightening on your arm. You wince, trying to pull away, but his strength holds you in place.

"I'm sorry." you mutter, not wanting to escalate the situation. "I didn’t see you."

His blood shot eyes narrow as he looks you up and down. "Wait a minute," he says, swaying slightly. "Don't I know you from somewhere?" Your heart races as you scan the crowd, hoping someone will notice and intervene. But everyone seems lost in their own drunken revelry.

"No, I don't think so." you say firmly, attempting to twist your arm free. "I need to get home. Please let me go." you beg, trying to appeal to his better nature, but finding nothing.

“No, I have seen you before. Are you a pornstar?” He asks with a wide grin, pulling you in close. The smell of his breath makes you retch and you attempt to yank free again.

 “No, get the fuck off of me!” You nearly spit at him, focusing on removing his hand. The impact of his slap does free you, but not as you had hoped. The size difference between you and him becomes all the more apparent as your body hits the ground. Your head wobbles on your shoulder as you struggle to get your bearings back. Just as your mind got less foggy his arm was back on your forearm, dragging you into the alley around the corner. 

Panic surges through you as the man drags you deeper into the alley, away from the crowded street. Your heart pounds in your ears, drowning out the sounds of the nearby bars. You struggle against his grip, legs finally back into position enough to slow him down, but his drunken state seems to have only amplified his strength.

"Let go!" you shout, hoping someone will hear you over the noise of the nightlife. Tears are spilling down your cheeks as he laughs, digging his blunt nails into your arm.

“To think I have a moment with my favorite pornstar!” He rambles to himself, already jingling the buckle of his pants. Horror washes over you. You knew these things could happen- sometimes, awful people happen. But you didn’t want these things happening, not if you could help it. You stomp on the man's foot as hard as possible, and yell at him all while yanking the arm he was holding towards your own body.

For a moment it felt like your efforts would be rewarded but all it did was make him angry. The second slap feels closer to a punch. For a brief moment it feels like your head might fall off. You crash into the concrete wall behind you groaning out in pain. Your vision blurs as your head throbs from the impact. The world spins, and for a moment, you think you might pass out.

The sound of a zipper is what begins to make the bile shift in your stomach. Your arms hug against your body, overwhelmed by the physical pain and mental trauma happening at the same time.

“Please, don’t-” was all you got out before a blur of orange, and the man hit the ground. The sound that left your attacker's mouth was horrifying. Your attacker wails for a moment before he starts to gurgle. A tall man with black hair, and green eyes stares down at your attacker with a look you’ve never seen before. He looked far too calm for a man choking another human being with enough force to possibly kill. Your attackers fingers reached out for you seeking aid, making you squirm- did you really care if this man died? You looked back at your violent defender, and spoke before thinking.

“Um, I think he’s trying to tap out.” You offer while watching your attacker struggle unsuccessfully against the man's head lock. To your surprise the defender smirks and squeezes harder.

“Nah, better if he naps all this off.” His voice is deeper than you thought, his cadence was oddly relaxed despite holding a large struggling man in his grip.

You watch in stunned silence as your attacker's struggles grow weaker, his movements becoming sluggish until finally, his body goes limp. The stranger releases his hold, letting the unconscious man fall face first to the ground. He turns to face you, his green eyes now scanning you.

"Rough night." he states casually, his voice softer now. "Did he hurt you?"

You nod, still trembling from the ordeal. "I think I'm okay. Just shaken up." Your cheek stings where you were struck, and your head throbs from hitting the wall, but you didn’t think he would care all that much, considering he just dropped a man on his face.

The stranger takes a step closer, his hands raised slightly as if to show he means no harm. "Names Togame Jo. Figured you needed a hand." He reaches down, latching onto your arm. 

Normally you’d love his attention, he was incredibly attractive, but right now your nerves were shot. As he hoists you off the ground a hiss leaves your lips and you push his arm away. “Watch it.” You hadn’t meant to be so rude but the arm he had grabbed was extremely tender, all your adrenaline long gone. His posture switches immediately, his full height suddenly looming over you as he steps in close. For a moment it looks like he will slap you like the man before him, but instead his fingers grip your wrist, pulling you arm towards himself, he examines your forearm with a frown.

Togame's frown deepens as he inspects the bruises forming on your arm. His touch is surprisingly gentle as he turns your wrist, examining the damage.

"Bastard really did a number on you." he mutters, his green eyes flicking up to meet yours. "You need medical attention?"

You shake your head, wincing slightly at the movement. "No, I'll be fine. I just want to go home."

Togame nods, releasing your arm. "I'll walk you there." he offers, though it felt like an unrefusable offer.

For a moment, you hesitate- weighing the risks. After what just happened, the idea of trusting a stranger seems foolish. But something about Togame Jo's demeanor puts you at ease. Maybe it's the way he effortlessly took down your attacker, or the gentleness in his touch as he examined your injuries. Whatever it is, you find yourself nodding.

"It's not far." you say, gesturing vaguely down the street. "Just a few more blocks."

Togame falls into step beside you as you leave the alley, his tall frame creating a buffer between you and the rowdy crowds still milling about. You can't help but notice how people seem to give him a wide berth, their eyes darting away when they catch sight of him. Once you had calmed down more things made sense. His jersey was famous around these parts. While you didn’t know who he was specifically, the Shishitoren emblem was unmistakable.

"So," Togame says after a few moments of silence, "what's a nice person like you doing out so late in this neighborhood?"

You sigh, rubbing your sore cheek. "I just got off work.”

"Work, huh?" Togame raises an eyebrow, his green eyes glinting with curiosity. "Must be a late shift."

You nod, feeling a mix of exhaustion and lingering anxiety wash over you. "Yeah, I work at the cafe a few blocks back. Had to close up alone tonight."

Togame whistles low. "Tough gig. Especially in this area."

As you walk, you can't help but steal glances at your unexpected savior. His relaxed demeanor contrasts sharply with the dangerous aura he exudes. You wonder what kind of life he leads, being part of the notorious Shishitoren.

"So," you venture, curiosity getting the better of you, "do you often rescue people in dark alleys?"

A smirk plays at the corner of Togame's lips. "Only the cute ones," he quips, then chuckles at your startled expression. "Nah, I was just in the right place at the right time."

You feel a blush creep up your neck, unsure how to respond to his casual flirtation. "Well, thank you," you pause for a moment, reliving the hits to your face all over again. "I appreciate your help.” You manage to mumble out. He smiles, humming back in response.

As you approach your apartment building, a sense of relief washes over you. The familiar sight of the worn brick facade and flickering porch light feels like a sanctuary after the night's ordeal. You pause at the bottom of the steps, turning to face Togame.

"This is me." you say, gesturing towards the building. "Thanks again for walking me home."

Togame nods, his green eyes scanning the area before settling back on you. "No problem. You gonna be alright from here?"

You hesitate, suddenly aware of how empty and quiet your apartment will be. The events of the night replay in your mind, sending a shiver down your spine. "Yeah, I'll be fine," you lie, forcing a smile.

Togame's eyebrow quirks up, clearly not buying your act. "You sure about that? You look like you could use some company."

Your heart races at his suggestion. Part of you wants to invite him up, to not be alone with your thoughts. But another part reminds you that he's still a stranger, albeit one who saved you.

"I don't know..." you start, uncertainty filling your voice.

Togame holds up his hands, a disarming smile on his face. "Hey, no pressure. Just thought you might want someone to talk to after all that. But if you'd rather be alone, I get it."

You bite your lip, weighing the options. The thought of facing the empty apartment alone suddenly seems unbearable. "Actually, care for a drink?" you ask sheepishly.

Togame's eyes light up, a hint of surprise in his expression. "Wouldn't say no." he says with a casual shrug, but you catch the subtle eagerness in his tone.

You lead him up the creaky stairs to your second-floor apartment, fumbling slightly with your keys as you unlock the door. The familiar scent of home washes over you as you step inside, bringing a sense of comfort after the night's chaos.

"It's not much." you say, flicking on the lights and gesturing around the modest space, "but it's home."

Togame follows you in, his tall frame comically filling up the small living room. His green eyes scan the space, taking in the mismatched furniture and the small collection of plants on the windowsill. "It's cozy, I like it." he says, a hint of approval in his voice.

You head to the kitchen, grateful for the chance to collect yourself. "Make yourself comfortable." you call over your shoulder. "What's your poison?"

"Whatever you're having," Togame replies, settling onto your worn couch.

You pull two beers from the fridge, popping the caps off before returning to the living room. Togame accepts the bottle with a small nod, his fingers brushing yours as he takes it. The brief contact sends images of his hands on you, reminding you of how long it's been since you got laid. 

You sit beside him on the couch, leaving a respectable distance between you. An awkward silence falls between you both, the room suddenly smaller than you remembered from this morning.

As you sip your beer, you can't help but steal glances at Togame. He was certainly taller than the average man, and his arms will thick as hell. You notice his eyes roaming over the various knick-knacks and photos adorning your walls.

"So," Togame says, breaking the silence, "you always invite strange men up to your apartment after they rescue you?"

You choke a little on your beer, caught off guard by his directness. "No," you sputter out, "this is definitely a first."

Togame chuckles, a deep rumble that sends a shiver down your spine. "I'm honored." he says with a wink.

You feel your cheeks flush and quickly take another swig of beer to hide your reaction. "What about you?" you ask, trying to regain your composure. "Do you often end up in strangers' apartments after playing hero?"

"Nah," Togame replies, leaning back into the couch. "Usually I'm the one people are running from, not towards."

His casual admission of his dangerous reputation should probably alarm you, but instead, you find yourself intrigued. "Because of Shishitoren?" you ask, gesturing to his jersey.

Togame's eyes narrow slightly, a flicker of something dangerous passing over his face before his relaxed demeanor returns. "You know about us, huh?"

You shrug, suddenly feeling self-conscious. "Not much, really. Just that you guys have a reputation around here."

Togame's expression softens, a hint of amusement in his eyes. "A reputation, huh? Well, can't say it's undeserved." He takes a long swig of his beer, his gaze never leaving yours. "But tonight, I'm just a guy having a drink with a cute barista. That alright with you?"

Your heart skips a beat at his words. The way he looks at you makes you feel seen in a way you haven't in a long time. "Yeah." you say softly, "that's alright with me."

As the night wears on, you find yourself relaxing more in Togame's presence. The conversation flows easily, ranging from your work at the cafe to his vague allusions to life in Shishitoren. You can't help but be drawn in by his charisma, the way his green eyes light up when he laughs, the casual grace with which he moves.

Before you know it, you're on your third beer, a pleasant warmth spreading through your body. The events from earlier in the night feel distant now, like a bad dream fading in the light of day. You find yourself studying Togame's profile as he recounts a particularly funny story about a misunderstanding at a local ramen shop.

"What?" he asks, catching you staring at his arms.

"Nothing," you say, a little too quickly.

Togame's lips curl into a knowing smirk. "Admiring the view?" he teases, flexing his arm slightly.

You feel your face flush, equal parts embarrassment and attraction. "Maybe." You admit, the alcohol makes you bolder than usual. "You did use those arms to save me earlier."

Togame's smirk widens into a grin. "Well, they're not just for show," he says, leaning in closer. His voice drops lower, sending a shiver down your spine. "Want a closer look?"

Your breath catches in your throat as he closes the distance between you on the couch. The warmth radiating from his body makes your skin tingle with anticipation. You find yourself nodding, unable to form words as Togame's hand gently cups your cheek.

"You sure about this?" he murmurs, his thumb tracing your jawline. "After everything that happened tonight..."

The concern in his eyes touches you, melting away any lingering reservations. "I'm sure." you whisper, leaning into his touch.

Togame's lips meet yours in a kiss that starts soft but quickly deepens with intensity. His strong arms wrap around you, pulling you flush against his chest. You lean into the embrace, your fingers tangling in his dark hair as the kiss grows more passionate.

When you finally break apart, both breathing heavily, Togame rests his forehead against yours. "Damn," he says with a low chuckle. "If I'd known saving cute baristas led to this, I'd have done it sooner."

You laugh deeply enjoying his charming banter."Well, I'm glad it was me you saved." you reply, tracing patterns on his chest through his shirt.

Togame's eyes fill with desire as he watches your fingers trail across his chest. In one fluid motion, he pulls you onto his lap, his strong hands gripping your hips. "Me too." he murmurs, his lips finding the sensitive spot on your neck.

A soft gasp escapes you as he trails kisses down your neck and collar bone. Your fingers tighten in his hair, pulling him closer. The solid warmth of his body against yours makes you feel safe and wanted in a way you haven't experienced in a long time.

"Togame." you breathe, arching into him as his hands slip under your shirt, caressing the bare skin of your lower back.

He pulls back slightly, his green eyes dark searching your face. "You okay?" he asks slowly, his thumbs tracing circles on your hips. "We can stop if you want."

The tenderness in his voice, contrasting with the dangerous aura he exudes, makes the heat in your core double. You cup his face in your hands, marveling at how someone who had so effortlessly taken down your attacker could be so gentle with you.

"Just, fuck me." you demand of him, leaning in to capture his lips in another kiss.

A low growl rumbles in Togame's chest as he stands suddenly, lifting you with him. Your legs wrap instinctively around his waist as he carries you towards the bedroom, his strong arms support you effortlessly. He kicks the door closed behind him then gently lowers you onto the bed, his body hovering over yours.

"You're sure about this?" he asks one last time, his green eyes searching yours intently.

You nod, pulling him closer. "Stop asking." you breathe against his lips before kissing him deeply.

Togame responds with fervor, his hands roaming your body as he settles between your legs. You tug at his shirt, eager to feel his skin against yours. He breaks the kiss just long enough to pull it off, revealing a toned chest marked with a few light scattered scars.

Your fingers trace the lines of his muscles, marveling at the strength contained within. Togame watches your hands explore, his eyes darkening with desire. He makes quick work of your own shirt, his calloused hands gentle as they map your newly exposed skin.

"Beautiful." he murmurs, pressing hot kisses along your collarbone.

You arch into him, gasping as his lips find an extra sensitive spot on your neck. Your hands tangle in his hair again, holding him close as he lavishes attention upon you. The rest of your clothes soon join the pile on the floor, leaving nothing between your bodies.

Togame takes his time, his touches alternating between gentle caresses and firm grasps that leave you breathless. His touch is electric, sending shivers down your spine and igniting a fire between your legs. 

"Jo." you gasp, arching into him as his mouth finds your breast. He leaves hot kisses along  your skin, sending sparks of pleasure through you. His hand trails down your stomach, teasing at the curve of your thighs. You spread your legs wider, silently begging for more.

He lifts his head, making eye contact with a smirk. "Tell me what you want." he commands, his fingers tracing tantalizing patterns on your inner thigh.

"You." you breathe, pulling him closer. "I want you inside me."

A low growl rumbles in Togame's chest as he positions himself between your legs. He enters you slowly, giving you time to adjust to his size. You moan at the delicious stretch, your nails digging into his shoulders.

"Fuck," Togame groans, his forehead resting against your shoulder as he stills inside you. "You feel amazing."

While his size was impressive, years of self care had prepared you for him.  A moan fills the room as your body accepts him with ease. You wanted to share also how incredible he felt but all you could focus on was his cock spreading you wide. Instead you roll your hips, urging him to move. 

Togame takes the hint, setting a steady rhythm that has you gasping with each thrust. His strong hands grip your hips, pulling you closer with each movement. The room fills with the sounds of your shared pleasure, soft moans and gasps mingling with the rustle of sheets.

Togame's powerful body moves against yours, his hips rolling in a hypnotic rhythm. You cling to his broad shoulders, loving the sensations coursing through you. His lips find yours in a passionate kiss as he drives deeper, hitting just the right spot to make you cry out in pleasure against his lips.

"That's it." he murmurs against your neck, his breath hot on your skin. "Let me hear you."

You moan louder, unashamed as waves of pleasure wash over you. Togame's pace increases, his movements becoming more urgent. You can feel yourself getting close, teetering on the edge of release.

Togame's pace increases, driving deeper into you with each thrust. You wrap your legs around his waist, changing the angle and crying out as he hits a spot that sends shockwaves of pleasure through your body.

"Right there," you pant, your fingers digging into his back. "Don't stop."

Togame grunts in acknowledgment, his rhythm becoming more intense. You can feel the tension building to a breaking point, a coiling heat in your core that threatens to snap any second. 

"Jo, I'm close," you gasp, your body trembling beneath him. “Fuckfuckfuckfuck” you mutter, barely able to keep yourself together. 

He slides a hand between your bodies, his rough fingers press into your clit, rubbing in tandem with his thrust. The added stimulation pushes you over the edge harshly. You cry out Togame's name as waves of pleasure crash into you, your body arching off the bed. The sight of your pleasure sends Togame over the edge as well. He buries his face in your neck, groaning deeply as he finds his own release inside you. Normally, you’d yell at a man for not asking to come inside you but just this once you’d let it go- after all he was your hero. 

For a moment, you both lie there, breathing heavily, bodies intertwined. Togame presses a gentle kiss to your forehead before carefully pulling out and collapsing beside you. He gathers you into his arms, your head resting on his chest.

"Fuck, I needed that." you puff out, still catching your breath.

"Same." Togame chuckles softly, his chest rumbling beneath your cheek. His fingers trace lazy patterns on your back, sending pleasant tingles across your skin. You lie there in comfortable silence for a few moments, basking in the afterglow.

You nuzzle closer, inhaling his scent - a mix of his exertion, and cologne. It reminded you of fresh brewed black tea and musk. If you were honest, you hoped his scent would linger on your sheets for a while, it was intoxicating.

"So," you venture, propping yourself up on an elbow to look at Togame. "Does this mean I get protection from the notorious Shishitoren now?"

His green eyes sparkle with amusement. "Careful what you wish for." he teases, his fingers tapping the bottom of your chin, "Once you're under our protection, there's no going back."

You lean into his touch, a small smile playing on your lips. "Promise?"

Togame's expression turns serious for a moment. "I can."

"I wouldn’t mind seeing you around." you reply softly, thinking of the long hours and difficult walk home every Friday night.

Togame's eyes shift at your words, but his face is unreadable. He pulls you closer, his lips brushing against your cheek. "I wouldn't mind that either." he murmurs.

You settle back against his chest, feeling safe. The events of the night - the fear, the violence, and now this unexpected connection - swirl in your mind. Part of you wonders if you're making a mistake, getting involved with someone like Togame Jo. But as his strong arms wrap around you, you find it hard to care.

"So," you say, tracing patterns on his chest "do I get a cool jacket like yours?"

Togame laughs, the sound rumbling through his chest. "Nah, the jacket's for members only. But you’ll get my protection." he pauses, his hand running up and down your arm. "It means no one messes with you. Not if they know what's good for them."

You shiver at the hint of danger in his voice, completely thrilled by your new guard dog. "And what about you?" you ask, looking up to meet his gaze. "Will I be seeing more of you?"

Togame's lips curl into a smirk. "That can be arranged," he says, his hand sliding down to cup your ass. "Someone's gotta make sure you get home safe from those late shifts, right?"

"I'd like that." you murmur, a smile playing on your lips. The thought of Togame waiting for you after your late shifts makes you giddy.

He pulls you closer, his lips brushing against your ear. "Good. Because I'm not done with you yet."

His words ignite a fresh wave of desire in you. You shift, straddling his hips and looking down at him with a mischievous grin. "Oh really? And what did you have in mind?"

Togame's hands settle on your waist, his thumbs tracing circles on your skin. "Well," he says, his voice low and husky, "Let me show you a few more of my talents."

You lean down, your lips hovering just above his. "Show me what you’ve got." you tease, a smirk playing on your lips. Your hips grind down on his semi-hard cock, torturing him.

In one swift motion, Togame flips you onto your back, pinning your hands above your head. His green eyes are clouded with desire as he looks down at you. "Challenging me?"

Togame's sudden move catches you off guard, sending a buzz of excitement through your body. You gasp, looking up into his intense gaze. The weight of his body pressing you into the mattress makes your pussy wet again. Just the display of his strength makes your body ache for him.

"Maybe I am." you say breathlessly, a hint of defiance in your tone. "What are you going to do about it?"

A slow, dangerous smile spreads across Togame's face. "Oh, I've got a few ideas." he murmurs, his free hand trailing down your body. His touch is feather-light, teasing, making you squirm beneath him.

You arch into his touch, craving more. "Care to share?" you ask, your voice raw.

Instead of answering, Togame captures your lips in a wet kiss. His tongue explores your mouth as his hand continues its tantalizing journey down your body. When he reaches the valley of your thighs and rubs them gently, you moan into the kiss, spreading your legs wider in invitation.

Togame breaks the kiss, his lips trailing down your neck. "Patience." he murmurs against your skin, nipping lightly at your collarbone. "I plan to take my time with you."

His words send a shiver down your spine. You tug at your pinned hands, wanting to touch him, but he holds firm. "Jo.." you whine, frustrated by his teasing.

Togame chuckles at your whine, his breath hot against your skin. "Ah ah, not yet." he murmurs, his free hand ghosting over your inner thigh. "I want to hear you beg for it."

His fingers trace patterns on your sensitive skin, purposefully avoiding where you need him most. You squirm beneath him, desperate for more contact. "Please!" you gasp, your hips lifting off the bed seeking friction.

"Please what?" Togame asks, his voice low and husky. His lips trail down your neck, leaving a trail of fire in their wake.

"Touch me, please." you breathe, your body trembling with need. "Please, Jo, I need you."

Togame hums against your skin, considering your plea. "Since you asked so nicely." he says, finally releasing your hands.

Before you can react, he's sliding down your body, settling between your legs. His strong hands grip your thighs, spreading you wide. You prop yourself up on your elbows, watching with hooded eyes as he lowers his head. You had never had a man eat you out after he came inside you, but it was incredibly fucking hot Togame was unbothered by such filthy work.

The first swipe of his tongue against your sensitive clit has you crying out in pleasure. Togame's skilled mouth works you expertly, alternating between broad strokes and focused attention on your clit. Your hands fly to his hair, gripping tightly as waves of pleasure wash over you.

"Fuck, Jo.." you moan, your hips rolling against his face.

Togame's tongue works magic between your thighs, sending waves of pleasure coursing through your body. His strong hands grip your hips, holding you in place as he devours you with singular focus. You writhe beneath him, gasping and moaning as he brings you closer and closer to the edge.

"Jo.." you pant, your fingers tangling in his dark hair. "I'm so close."

He hums against you, the vibration sending sparks of sensation through your dripping pussy. His tongue circles your clit with increased pressure, and you feel the tension building to a breaking point. Just as you're about to tumble over the edge, Togame pulls back, his tongue hovering just above you clit. You whimper at the loss of contact, your hips chasing his mouth unsuccessful.

"Not yet," he murmurs, his breath hot against your sensitive flesh. "I want more."

Before you can protest, he slides two fingers inside you, curling them to hit your g spot. His mouth returns to your clit, sucking gently as his fingers work you from the inside. The dual stimulation is overwhelming, and you feel yourself rapidly approaching climax once again.

"Please, fuck" you beg, not entirely sure what you're asking for. "Jo, please."

Togame's eyes lock with yours, dark with desire. "Come for me." he demands, his voice low and husky. His words, combined with the relentless attention of his mouth and fingers, send you careening over violently. Your thighs snap closed against his body, struggling against his still moving fingers. Your pants come out hard while your hands fly up to search for leverage. He chuckles as he continues to pump his fingers into your tender pussy.

Your body trembles with aftershocks as Togame slowly withdraws his fingers. He presses a gentle kiss to your inner thigh before moving back up your body. His lips capture yours in a deep kiss, letting you taste a bodily fluid cocktail on his tongue.

"Fuck." you pant when he finally pulls away, still breathless from your intense orgasm.

"Doing alright?" Togame finishes with a smirk, his green eyes still mischievous. He positions himself between your legs, the hard length of his cock pressing against your sensitive flesh.

You wrap your legs around his waist, pulling him closer. "Never better, I got all night." you challenge, with a cheeky grin.

Togame's response is to thrust into you in one smooth motion, filling you completely. You both groan at the sensation, your bodies fitting together perfectly.

He sets a brutal rhythm, each thrust going deeper than the last. His hands find your thighs and press them down hard against your body. The man was putting you into a full mating press and it was glorious. Your mind was beginning to blur, completely overworked by your moans, panting, and the pressure from his heavy body.

Togame's powerful thrusts drive you into the mattress, each movement sending shockwaves of pleasure and pain through your overstimulated body. The new angle allows him to hit spots deep inside you that make your toes curl and your vision blur. Your hands scramble for purchase on his sweat-slicked back as you struggle to match his intense rhythm.

"You feel so fucking good." Togame grunts, his voice strained with effort. His green eyes are glassy as they lock onto yours, watching every expression of pleasure that crosses your face.

You can barely form coherent thoughts, let alone words. Each thrust pushes you in a direction of an orgasm you don’t think is reachable. "Jo" you manage to gasp out, "I can’t.." your words are cut off by an incredibly hard thrust.

His hips slam against yours with bruising force. His long body arches towards you, for a moment you think he is going to kiss you but instead his teeth sink into the tender flesh of your neck. He laps at the bite, groaning with abandon while finding a new place to sink his teeth into.

The dual stimulation becomes too much. With a cry that's almost a scream, you come undone beneath him. Your body arches off the bed, trembling violently as waves of intense pleasure crash over you again. Togame doesn't let up, fucking you through your orgasm, and prolonging the sensation until tears begin to form in your water line.

Your vision blurs as the intense orgasm washes away all thoughts, and leaves your body trembling uncontrollably beneath Togame's powerful form. He continues to thrust into you relentlessly, drawing out his pleasure but pushing you to almost unbearable heights.

"That's it," he growls, his voice ragged. "Take it all." he moans out

You cling to him desperately, your nails digging into his damp back as you try relaxing into his thrusts. Just when you think you can't take anymore, Togame's rhythm falters. With a deep groan, he buries himself to the hilt inside you, his body shuddering as he finds his own release.

For a long moment, you both lie there panting, bodies intertwined and slick with sweat. Togame's weight presses you into the mattress making it difficult to breathe. He presses a gentle kiss to your forehead before slowly pulling out and collapsing beside you.

"Fuck." you breathe, still trying to catch your breath. Your body feels boneless, pleasantly sore in all the right places, and some areas a bit less pleasant. Togame chuckles, pulling you against his chest. "Might have to save you nightly." he groans into your neck. His tongue laps out again, soothing the deep bites he had placed in your neck, which were already forming shiny red and purple spots.

You nuzzle into his warmth, feeling utterly spent but enjoying his mouth's attention. "I think you broke me." you mumble against his skin, only half-joking.

Togame chuckles, his chest rumbling against you. "Nah, you're tougher than that." he says, his fingers tracing soothing patterns on your back. You smile, nodding in agreement with his assessment of you, granted your sore cervix had different opinions.

As your breathing slows and your heartbeat returns to normal, a comfortable silence falls between you. Togame's hand continues its gentle caress along your spine, occasionally drifting to brush against the marks he left on your neck.

"So," you murmur after a while, tilting your head to look up at him. "Is this a one-time thing, or...?"

Togame's green eyes meet yours, a hint of vulnerability flashing across his face before his usual confident smirk returns. "Depends," he says, his voice low. "You want it to be?"

You consider his question, weighing the potential complications against the undeniable connection you feel with him. "No," you admit softly. "I'd like to see you again."

Relief flickers in Togame's eyes, quickly masked by a playful grin. "Good," he says, pulling you closer. "Because I wasn't planning on letting you go that easily."

[febuwhump]

Q: what is febuwhump?

A: febuwhump is a prompt challenge during february, in which creators try to fill one prompt a day, as guided by the official prompt list, in whatever creative way they wish

Q: what is whump?

A: it’s when you put a character in emotional, psychological or physical hurt. can be to any extent

Q: do i HAVE to create whump?

A: i’m not gonna come to your home and make you create whump, no. ‘whump’ is in the title of the event and it’s a whump-centric challenge but if that’s not inspiring to you or going to help you be creative then forget it and do what works best for you. challenge yourself how you want to and let febuwhump be the guide, not the law

Q: how do i win febuwhump?

A: officially, you can become a completionist by producing or posting 28 unique whump-themed works over the 28 days of february, in the order the prompts are provided. you do not have to aim to win febuwhump if you don’t want to, and if you are not aiming to win, you do not have to follow all the rules, because at that point who cares

Q: can the 28 unique works be chapters to one fic?

A: yes

Q: can the 28 unique works be in any order?

A: no, please follow the day order as given to the best of your ability

Q: can the 28 unique works actually be less than 28 unique works because i blend a bunch of prompts together for one day or something else along these lines that directly contradicts the explained definition of febuwhump?

A: no

Q: can i complete febuwhump in tandem with other events?

A: yeah like what do i care, of course you can

Q: how do i inform you that i have won?

A: there will be a google forms link made available during the month of february. you have until march 3rd to fill it in

Q: how do i prove that i’ve won?

A: you don’t have to. this is an honour system and if you fill out the form, i will believe you. however, there will be a completionist badge you can use to post with your masterlist to show everyone else that you’ve won. this will be provided near the end fo february

Q: what are the exact requirements for the hall of fame?

A: the exact requirements are as follows:

you must have completed 28 sections/chapters/works/projects etc. inspired by 28 unique prompts and posted/produced them over the 28 days of february

you may combine prompts so long as there are still 28 unique prompts for 28 sections/works

this means that you can combine a core prompt and an alt prompt

or two core prompts, so long as an alt prompt replaces one of them

you must inform the blog by the 3rd of march that you completed febuwhump or your name will not feature in the hall of fame.

Q: am i allowed to–

A: you can do literally whatever you want, in any medium you want

Q: even–

A: yes even that

Q: what about–

A: that too

Q: really? anything at all?

A: if you want to win, follow the rules as explained. if you don’t actually care, do whatever you want. i will not stop you. i am not your mother

Q: can you give me extra ideas for prompts?

A: no! i’ve provided 38 prompts already, so i’m not really in the position to be creating extra lists for specific tropes right now. if you need help with specific prompts (such as not understanding what one means or could possibly involve/be in reference to) then i’ll do my best to help - but i’m only one person and i don’t really have the time or effort to be giving extra ideas right now

the propaganda tag has lots of ideas for how to use various prompts, and the previous prompt lists can be accessed for more ideas

Q: how do i add my fics to the archiveofourown.org collection?

A: the ao3 collection will be open from february 1st to compile all ao3 works. you do not have to have completed all 28 days of febuwhump to submit - any and all febuwhump works are welcome there, but the cut off date is march 5th - the collection will be closed from then, because the collection intends to be a capture of what was written in a specific period of time.

you can add fics as you’re posting or after they’ve been posted by using the ‘collection’ bar on the creation page. all you have to do is type in the name of the collection: febuwhump_2025. do not wait for the drop down menu, it will not show the name. press post and it will be included in the collection.

febuwhump 2021 collection can be accessed here

febuwhump 2022 collection can be accessed here

febuwhump 2023 collection can be accessed here

febuwhump 2024 collection can be accessed here

febuwhump 2025 collection can be accessed here

Q: i have literally any other question

A: check the rules and previous posts and asks and if your specific question isn’t answered, feel free to send an ask. if it has been answered before, and especially recently, i will not answer. please go looking, thanks

[asteriastarr]

BOO I HAS SUGGESTION/REQUEST

Cedric (deadric) Diggory x slytherin reader

she overheard another student gossiping about something that pissed her off and she storms into the great hall to confront the asshole gossiper student but Cedric stops her and takes her away to attemp to calm her down (ced and y/n are a couple)

That Ravenclaw Girl

Cedric Diggory x Slytherin!Granger!Reader

POV: Cedric helps calm his girlfriend down

A/n: I'm baaackkkkkkkkk, ik this isn't normally the char i write for but, oh well. I apologise for how short this is (considering it took me like a month to write). The ravenclaw mentioned can be implied to be Cho, but it's never actually mentioned (I think). Send me more requests besties :)! Please note: I was messaging the person who requested this for a lil bit to get specific details for this oneshot done, hence why theres major details in the fic thats not mentioned in the request

Y/n Granger was a fan of many things her friends, her boyfriend, her pet snake, (some of) her classes and of course, her younger cousin Hermione. The two weren’t close by blood, in fact they were only second cousins and, before Hermione had been accepted to Hogwarts, they’d only really hung out at family events. Friendship wise however, they were practically best friends, Y/n had confided in Hermione about her crush on a boy in her year before Hermione had even been accepted to Hogwarts (of course Y/n never told Hermione where she went to school), then, during Y/n’s 5th year, had very happily told her younger cousin about said boy asking her out.

There were very few things Y/n didn’t like, very trivial things, like, Dark Wizards, her head of house, a certain Ravenclaw girl who had seemed to make it her mission to get as close as possible to Y/n’s boyfriend and most of all, gossip… or rather negative gossip, specifically when it was about her, her friends, her family, or her boyfriend.

Then, Y/n would find herself becoming awfully defensive. That’s how, just a few days before the Christmas holidays, the 6th year witch found herself storming into the great hall after overhearing a group of Ravenclaws gossiping about her.

“That Granger girl- no not Potters friend, the Slytherin one- she’s so… weird. I don’t know what Diggory sees in her.”

“I know right? Y’know, I heard a rumour, that Diggory and… y’know who were dating just before 5th year, but… secretly, and Granger got jealous and went all psycho, and put Diggory under a love potion!”

“I wouldn’t put it past her, you’ve seen her in potions, right? I doubt she’s ever actually made anything Professor Snapes told us to make, always hunched over her cauldron giggling to herself.”

“I always thought she was so creepy, and so mean too- you see the way she treats-”

The group had then moved down the hall, until it was impossible for any ordinary person to hear them without the help of magic, though Y/n didn’t need to hear much more, she’d already heard enough to be pissed, she was, of course, no stranger to rumours being spread about her, she’d been dealing with them since she was a first year, and, as she was most certain was true for this, they’d always been spread by the same Ravenclaw girl. From the moment they’d met, this Ravenclaw girl had had it out for Y/n, whether it be because the girl liked Cedric and even before they’d started dating Y/n had always been far closer to him than this Ravenclaw girl would ever be to him, or because Y/n was just the better witch, Y/n had no clue, the only thing Y/n knew for certain was that this girl despised her, and so in turn, Y/n despised the girl.

So, all other, more reasonable senses blurred, Y/n turned on her heel, whipping her wand out of her pocket and marching her way down to the Great Hall. Her grip on her wand was so tight she’d felt her knuckles grow pale, she pushed past various students who’d been either entering or exiting the Great Hall and standing at the entrance for a moment, scanning the area, until, her eyes landed on that specific Ravenclaw girl, sat on the other side of the room, surrounded by other girls in their year, very likely she was fabricating some other story to further mar Y/n’s reputation.

Not sparing a moment to think, she continued to storm her way through the Great Hall, she wasn’t quite sure what exactly she was going to do, only that she wanted to make this witch suffer. When she was only a few paces away from this girl, she felt someone suddenly grip her arm, it was gentle, but tight enough so she couldn’t force her arm free if she wanted to.

“Let go of me!” She hissed, trying to wrangle her arm out of this persons grip as they gently pulled her in the opposite direction “I will hex you!” “Oh will you now sunshine?” The person spoke, still guiding her out of the Great Hall.

She almost instantly relaxed in the persons grip once she heard their voice, allowing them to bring her outside the hall.

“I could.” She stated, voice less aggressive as they came to a stop a few feet away from the entrance to the Hall.

“Well, I don’t doubt that.” Cedric said gently as they now stood facing each other, Cedric grabbing her hand and giving it a slight squeeze “Are you okay?” “Fine.” “Really? Because you were storming over to the Ravenclaw table with a look in your eyes that screamed ‘murder’.” Cedric stated, quirking a brow “Not to mention your knuckles have gone white from how tightly you were holding your wand.” “Okay. Maybe I’m not completely fine.” Y/n admitted with a sigh “It’s just… her again.”

“I thought we talked about this after the last time Y/n.” Cedric muttered gently, running his thumb over the back of her hand.

“I know, I can’t let her affect me so much, but- she’s just constantly going out of her way to mess with me, to try and ruin my life, so why shouldn’t I get to ruin her face a little?” Y/n complained, glancing down at their intertwined hands.

“Well for starters you’d very likely be expelled, and as much as I love you, I don’t really fancy spending hundreds of Galleons on parchment paper every few weeks so I can send you a daily owl instead of just getting to talk to you face to face.” Cedric spoke, a small smile on his face as he heard Y/n release a soft laugh.

“If you win the Triwizard tournament you’ll have plenty of funds to do that.” She murmured, a small grin on her lips.

“That’s a big if sunshine.” Cedric smiled, gently kissing her cheek, causing her to playfully scrunch her nose up “And secondly, getting all mad at her like this, as attractive as I find it, won’t help now, will it? It’ll just be giving her what she wants.” “I suppose.” Y/n muttered, slightly bitterly. “Hey, remember, I’m dating you, not her, no matter what stories she tries to fabricate.” Cedric spoke, carefully tilting her head up so she was looking at him.

“You’ve heard that story too then, have you?” Y/n spoke, a small frown playing on her lips.

“Couple of times, my friends seem to enjoy teasing me with it.” Cedric answered, gently stroking her cheek “You can’t let her get to you Y/n, just ignore her, okay? She’ll get bored eventually.”

“It’s been six years and she’s yet to become bored.” Y/n pointed out.

“Well, if she doesn’t, we can always laugh at her and her stories in private.” Cedric commented, leaning slightly closer “Okay?” “Okay.” Y/n murmured, a soft smile on her lips as she too leaned closer, until their lips met.

In that moment, all of Y/n’s grievances and irritations with this girl melted away, as she realised, that no matter what story this Ravenclaw girl crafted, or however else this spiteful girl attempted to damage Y/ns reputation, she knew that as long as Cedric was in her corner, she’d be perfectly fine.

[tavolgisvist]

'So there's a story...'

I'll buy you a diamond ring, my friend If it makes you feel alright I'll get you anything, my friend If it makes you feel alright 'Cause I don't care too much for money Money can't buy me love <…> I'll give you all I've got to give If you say you love me, too I may not have a lot to give But what I got, I'll give to you <…> Say you don't need no diamond rings And I'll be satisfied Tell me that you want the kind of things That money just can't buy I don't care too much for money Money can't buy me love

(Can't Buy Me Love, Jan/March 1964, A Hard Day’s Night)

… Baby says she's mine, you know She tells me all the time, you know She said so I'm in love with her and I feel fine I'm so glad that she's my little girl She's so glad, she's telling all the world That her baby buys her things, you know He buys her diamond rings, you know She said so She's in love with me and I feel fine

(I Feel Fine, Oct 1964, single I Feel Fine/She's A Woman)

Asked a girl what she wanted to be She said, "Baby, can't you see? I wanna be famous, a star of the screen But you can do something in between" <…> I told that girl that my prospects were good And she said, "Baby, it's understood Working for peanuts is all very fine But I can show you a better time" "Baby, you can drive my car Yes, I'm gonna be a star Baby, you can drive my car And maybe I'll love you" Beep-beep'm-beep-beep, yeah …

(Drive My Car, Oct 1965, Rubber Soul)

I started working at a coil-winding factory called Massey and Coggins. My dad had told me to go out and get a job. I’d said, ‘I’ve got a job, I’m in a band.’ But after a couple of weeks of doing nothing with the band it was, ‘No, you have got to get a proper job.’ He virtually chucked me out of the house: ‘Get a job or don’t come back.’ So I went to the employment office and said, ‘Can I have a job? Just give me anything.’ I said, ‘I’ll have whatever is on the top of that little pile there.’ And the first job was sweeping the yard at Massey and Coggins. I took it. I went there and the personnel officer said, ‘We can’t have you sweeping the yard, you’re management material.’ And they started to train me from the shop floor up with that in mind. <…> One day John and George showed up in the yard that I should have been sweeping and told me we had a gig at the Cavern. I said, ‘No. I’ve got a steady job here and it pays £7 14s a week. They are training me here. That’s pretty good, I can’t expect more. And I was quite serious about this.

(Paul McCartney, The Beatles Anthology)

But Paul would always give in to his dad. His dad told him to get a job, he dropped the group and started working on the fucking lorries, saying, 'I need a steady career.' We couldn't believe it. Once he rang up and said he'd got this job and couldn't come to the group. So I told him on the phone, 'Either come or you're out.' So he had to make a decision between me and his dad then, and in the end he chose me.

(John Lennon, Yoko Ono, St. Regis Hotel, New York, September 5th, 1971, interview with Peter McCabe and Robert Schonfeld)

I’d brought a version of it [‘Golden Rings’] out to John’s house in Weybridge, and we stalled when we got to the lines ‘You can buy me golden rings / Get me all that kind of thing’. We kept singing that over and over and couldn’t get beyond it because it was so shockingly bad. Part of the problem was that we’d already had ‘a diamond ring’ in ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’. ‘Golden rings’ was unoriginal and uninspiring. We couldn’t get past it. So we left it, went and had a cup of tea. When we came back, we started thinking of the woman as an LA girl. That improved things a bit. Then she wanted a chauffeur. <…> Once you get into creating a narrative and storytelling, it’s so much more entertaining. It draws you forward so much more easily. Now we were dramatising the interviewing of a chauffeur; we got over that dry moment and finished the song. It became one that didn’t get away. And its success had to do with getting rid of ‘golden rings’ and heading to ‘Baby, you can drive my car’. I know there’s a theory that rock and roll couldn’t have existed without the guitars of Leo Fender, but it probably couldn’t have existed without Henry Ford either. I’m thinking of the relationship between the motorcar and what happens in the back seat. We know that people shagged before the motorcar, but the motorcar gave the erotic a whole new lease on life. Think of Chuck Berry ‘riding along in my automobile’. Chuck is one of America’s great poets. ‘Beep beep, beep beep, yeah’. There you go. It was always good to get nonsense lyrics in, and this song lent itself to ‘Beep beep, beep beep, yeah’…

(Paul McCartney, The Lyrics, about 'Drive My Car')

*Paul means Berry's No Particular Place to Go:

Ridin' along in my automobile My baby beside me at the wheel I stole a kiss at the turn of a mile My curiosity runnin' wild Cruisin' and playin' the radio With no particular place to go

etc

for @m1ssunderstanding because

[hotguycalendar]

Views of Hermitcraft 2025!!!

 (header art by Sevenchi on twitter and instagram)

The 2025 Views of Hermitcraft Calendar is now up and running! 

If you want to order the physical calendar already designed by our team, fill out this form and submit your email to receive an invitation to order the calendar from Mixbook. The form will be open until January 5th. If you want to preview the physical calendar, check it out here on Mixbook. 

You can view the physical calendar, here. 

If you want to design and print your own physical calendar or download any images, use the Views Calendar Images folder, where you can download the same images we used. You are welcome to use a different website or photo printing service to create your own Views Calendar. 

If you want the digital calendar you can download the Digital Calendar PDF from this PDF This is a 14-month calendar with the same basic designs and dimensions as the physical calendar, with a few bonus details. 

Frequently Asked Questions and Credits below the cut:

Q. Do you make any money from this? 

A. No, we do not. While the Mixbook calendar does cost money, none of it goes to the organizers or artists. It only goes to the printers to acquire the physical copy. 

Q. What size is the calendar? 

A. The calendar images are 12”x12”, and the full calendar is 12”x24”. 

Q. What is the price of the physical calendar? 

A. The final price naturally depends on shipping, but the base cost of the calendar right 

now is $44.99. However, Mixbook may have coupons available to make your order cheaper. 

Q. How is the quality of the physical calendar?

A. It’s great! The calendar itself is made of sturdy matte paper. The image quality is fantastic, the covers lovely, and the calendar itself is sturdy and well-constructed.

Q. What if Mixbook doesn’t ship to my country?

A. Mixbook ships to a wide range of international locations, but if they don’t ship to your specific country, you can download the digital calendar, or design your own and print it locally.

Artist Credits: 

Thank you so much to the team of incredible artists and mods who made this project possible! Go and give them some love! 

Artists for Views of Hermitcraft: 

Front Cover: Sparrow on tumblr 

January: Dino on twitter 

February: Nhyhu on tumblr, instagram and twitter 

March: Tomato on twitter and tumblr  

April: Pocket-sized-gentleman on tumblr

May: Mer on tumblr 

June: Kaledo on  ​​tumblr, instagram and twitter 

July: Hoshi_umii on tumblr and twitter  

August: Berrysquared on tumblr and twitter 

September: Sevenchi on twitter and instagram 

October: Messiergalaxy  on twitter, tumblr, and instagram

November: Shepscapades on tumblr and twitter 

December: Wasyago on tumblr 

Back Cover: Joifee on tumblr

Mods:

Teahound on Tumblr 

Medusa on Tumblr

Chrysalizzm  on Tumblr

[meimi-haneoka]

Clear Card Trivia 5 ~ Real life models of buildings featured in Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card

Hello and welcome back to my column dedicated to Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card Arc!

After a rather "heavy" 4th one, for this 5th episode of the series I've chosen a topic that doesn't require to dig down into complex matters, but actually just admire the real life models of some of the buildings featured in Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card!

All of the buildings mentioned here have already been featured in a thread or tweet in my Twitter account, but I thought it was time to collect all the info relative to them in a single post, easy to browse through when needed! Maybe for some of you it'll be an interesting discovery!

Two of these models are old acquaintances, since they already existed in the old manga/anime but they came back, particularly one of them became pretty much a big deal in this arc, so they will be dutifully featured here.

Without further ado, let's explore these buildings under the cut! (I will also add useful info in case you want to visit them one day - many CCS fans already do this regularly!)

Tomoeda Middle School - The Gate Hotel by HULIC (ex Rissei Elementary School)

We start this review with one of the most iconic buildings in Clear Card Arc: ever since chapter 2 of the manga (because it didn't appear in chapter 1 yet) and episode 1 of the anime, this new building helped us getting accustomed with Sakura's new life as a middle schooler! Obviously I'm talking about the Tomoeda Middle School! It is a very nice building surrounded by cherry blossom trees, but the best part of it is that it's an existing building in real life!!

Let me introduce you to the ex Rissei Elementary School of Kyoto, which has been renovated in 2020 and turned into the current The Gate Hotel by HULIC. At the time of planning of Clear Card, the building was still known as the ex-Rissei Elementary School, although the building hadn't been used as a school since March 1993 (it had been turned into a multi-purpose space for the local community's gatherings and cultural activities). But don't be fooled: CLAMP didn't choose this building only because it's a pretty school - it is a very, very important historical building for the city of Kyoto (where CLAMP currently live!). This building is considered "the birthplace of cinema in Japan", since in 1897 an early film projector brought from Paris was installed in this school and an experimental showing of Lumière cinema was performed. Furthermore, this school also had the first swimming pool ever installed in an elementary school in Japan.

There's a very nice video explaining in details the history of this important building, subbed in English:

After a 10-years period where the building was used for cultural activities and festivals (particularly cinema oriented), in 2020 the renovation works ended and the place turned into a commercial building hosting a hotel (the current The Gate Hotel by Hulic), but also a library, events hall, restaurants, etc. enclosed in a complex called "Rissei Garden Hulic Kyoto". CLAMP also took interest in the renovation works, mentioning them in their social media at the time.

The thing that immediately stands out is that, in their renovation works, they kept the original architecture intact and so the building still looks exactly like Sakura-chan's school! You can see them here beside eachother and it's really the same.

If you are in Kyoto and want to do some "fan pilgrimage", as Japanese fans call it, you can reach this building at this address:

Rissei Garden Hulic Kyoto 310-2, Bizenjimacho, Kawaramachi Higashiiru, Takoyakushi-dori, Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto 604-8023 JAPAN Official website with detailed info on how to reach there.

Clow/Eriol/Akiho's mansion - The Former Moji Mitsui Club

In Cardcaptor Sakura there's another iconic and mysterious building that had been pretty important in Sakura Card Arc already, but in Clear Card Arc becomes basically a matter of "life and death" for the new tenants who live in it: of course I'm talking about the mansion that first belonged to Clow Reed, then to Eriol Hiiragizawa, then to Akiho Shinomoto (along with Yuna D. Kaito) and ultimately is bought and managed again by Eriol! 😆

Kaito, the stoic and unfazed magician Kaito we all know, had been uncharacteristically nervous about obtaining Eriol's ex-house, since he was afraid that the previous owner had left some trick that would prevent them from obtaining it. This info was not revealed in the manga, but actually in a "behind the curtains" scene of the 1st Drama CD that came with volume 7 of the manga. Why was it so important for Kaito to get Eriol's ex-house? It's easy to deduce, once you remember that Eriol himself told Syaoran that his ex-house is a very good place to store and protect magical artifacts. And who carried a ridiculously powerful magical artifact inside herself, unaware of it? Akiho, of course. Eriol's house was probably the best chance Kaito had to protect Akiho from all the attempts of the Association+the Squids to take her away, back into their control (as we have seen in chapter 33).

This house was so important that the anime staff (along with scriptwriter Ohkawa-sensei) had to come up with a convoluted explanation as to why the house was back on its feet again when Akiho invited Sakura and Tomoyo in episode 8, since it had been completely destroyed to build an amusement park at the beginning of The Sealed Card movie!! (which, mind you, it's still canon!! They just suggested that Kaito brought that house back with his magic and the majority of the characters didn't realize the discrepancy).

Well, did you know that such an important mansion is an actually existing building? Let me introduce you to the former Moji Mitsui Club in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka prefecture!

As you can see by comparing it with the pictures above, the anime version had to change some elements of the front here and there, but the manga counterpart is basically a tracing of the real existing building!! Just like the ex-Rissei Elementary School, this building isn't just aesthetically interesting, with its exposed timbers evocative of German design of its time. It was built in 1921 as an accommodation facility of Mitsui & Co., Ltd., Japan's first general trading company, but it's famous for having hosted none other than Albert Einstein and his wife, during their tour of Japan, in 1922!! In 1990 it was designated as an Important Cultural Property of Japan.

It is very interesting to note how the anime staff was pretty careful in keeping the same European vibe of the interiors of the existing building, with its big curtains, mantelpiece in each room, exposed wooden beams on the ceiling, dark brown half-wall wooden panelings.

In the manga we can mainly see, of this house, the living room where Kaito and Akiho always chat and have tea (which is the same of the anime), and only limitedly we can see another room (some kind of studio) and Akiho's bedroom. We even get a tiny glance at Kaito's bedroom in chapter 80, but it's basically just the bed.

This one above is the "Einstein Memorial Room" and it replicates faithfully the suite where Einstein and his wife stayed at while visiting Fukuoka.

The teal colored wallpaper with all those flowers makes me think that the design of Akiho's room in the anime might have been inspired precisely by this room! ✨

If you find yourself in the vicinity of Fukuoka, you can't miss the opportunity to visit this building at this address:

Former Moji Mitsui Club 7-1 Minatomachi, Moji-ku, Kitakyushu City JAPAN *Admission fee required for the 2nd floor - Einstein's Memorial Room More info on this page.

Masaki's Summer House - Rokkaen

And now we get to what I consider one of the most beautiful buildings featured in Clear Card Arc: one of Masaki's houses shown in episode 20 of the anime and chapter 20 of the manga!

This was seemingly Nadeshiko's favorite summer house and precisely for this reason, Masaki has planned to leave it as an inheritance to our Sakura-chan in the future! Truth to be told, he wanted to give it to her immediately, but Fujitaka understandably refused (for the time being) the inheritance of the house on his daughter's behalf. I don't even think Sakura knows of this, it's a matter the two men must have discussed in private. Regardless, dear CCS fans, this is a sneak peek into the future of our Sakura-chan and Syaoran-kun, as this might be the future nest of our two lovebirds. 🥰 And could a building of such importance and beauty be just a fictional house?? Of course not!!

Meet the Rokkaen, a gorgeous light blue European-style building in Kuwana, Mie prefecture!

The official Visit Mie website reports: "Completed in 1913, Rokkaen is an old European building with a four-story tower combined with a Japanese-style structure. It boasts a garden in the front complete with a pond. It was built by Josiah Conder, a British architect who also designed the Rokumeikan". Even this building, just like the former Moji Mitsui Club, was designated as an Important Cultural Property of Japan in 1997.

As you can see, this is what the manga shows of this building, and at first glance it might seem like a different mansion because the tower doesn't appear, but worry not: it is still the very same building, only showing the left side of it! The tower on the right side is hidden by the trees (and the Japanese side of the building is missing).

I've checked a bit the interiors from the anime and manga, and while in the anime I didn't recognize particularly any room (the style is still similar though, particularly the half-wall panelings), in the manga there's one scene where it is incontrovertibly featured the sun room on the second floor: it's when Sakura wanders inside and eventually finds Nadeshiko's room!

From the accuracy of the drawing, we can assume Mokona sensei worked closely with different pictures of the real life building! 😉

At this link you can even take a virtual tour of Rokkaen! But if you really want to visit it in person, then take note of the address below:

Rokkaen 663-5 Kuwana City, Kuwana 511-0005 Mie Prefecture JAPAN *Admission fees required to visit the building More info on how to reach the place on this page, using an online translator.

Tomoeda Aquarium - Kaiyukan Aquarium

As for Clear Card, this building only appears in the anime, but it is another one that got a second chance after having appeared in the old anime first: the Tomoeda Aquarium! I still remember how the choice to feature this building again for a very important episode was met with lots of criticism from the SyaoSaku fandom at the time of announcement of episode 9, only to end up making everyone fall in love with the portrayal of Sakura and Syaoran's first date ever. ✨ The magical and intimate atmosphere of an aquarium, with its soft lights and pretty colored fishes, got an unrivaled charm! Well, it seems the design of this magical place (where Kaito and Akiho will have a date of their own later on - only mentioned and manga-only, for now) was inspired by a real existing aquarium, the Kaiyukan Aquarium in Osaka!!

And of course, for CCS, they couldn't choose an average aquarium: Kaiyukan was, when it first opened in 1990, the largest public aquarium in the entire world. Nowadays that record has been surpassed by other aquariums, but it's still one of the largest. Goes without saying, but the design was the same even in the old anime.

Not everything we saw of this aquarium in CCS comes from Kaiyukan, though. It seems like the iconic cylindrical tank (yes, the one that broke twice in the anime) might have been inspired by AquaDom, which was a very popular aquarium situated in the lobby of the Radisson Collection Hotel in Berlin, Germany. This aquarium held the World Record title for the biggest cylindrical aquarium in the world. Why do I talk in past tense? ...Well, this might seem like a joke, you might have heard about it or not, but sometimes fiction turns into reality and on December 16th, 2022 the big tank suddenly ruptured, destroying itself and propelling 1 million litres of water and 1.500 tropical fishes into nearby facilities and streets, with devastating damage. Only two people got hurt from the glass debris since this happened early in the morning (before 6 am), but if this happened even just an hour later, the human damage would've been so much worse, on top of everything else. Unfortunately, all the fishes died. ☹️ When the news came out, I saw a lot of Japanese fans relating the incident to what happened in CCS. 😅

Well, I can't leave information to visit AquaDom anymore, since it seems they don't have any intention to re-build the cylindrical aquarium, but I can certainly do so for the pretty Kaiyukan aquarium in Osaka, so if you visit nearby, definitely check it out! 😉

Kaiyukan Aquarium 1-1-10 Kaigandori, Minato-ku, Osaka City 552-0022 JAPAN *Tickets required Additional access info here.

Old Library of Trinity College & The Eiffel Tower

Alright, alright, I'll admit it: these two come straight from my obsession for YunaAki, hence why I've lumped them together. 😆 When I started getting more and more involved in the story of these two, I (over)analyzed all their panels together, in hope to understand them better and grasp some foreshadowings on the story. And chapter 39 of the manga is particularly dear to me because it showed some fragments of their travels together around the world. I got so interested in that scene in particular, that I started to look if I could recognize the places depicted. And while I had a hard time recognizing some of them, there are two places that are actually existing buildings in real life!

One is the old library of the Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland! When I saw that huge library in the corner of the manga page, I had to look for it. It looked so majestic and beautiful that it had to have a real life inspiration. And it took me to just type "biggest libraries in the world" on Google, to find it! As you can see from the panel circled in purple above, Mokona sensei reproduced (simplifying the design) the one that's called "The Long Room", the biggest and most important room of this impressive library, hosting around 200.000 old books in its 65 mt of length. There are also marble busts lining the room, which have been just vaguely sketched by Mokona sensei, but they do appear along with the seats in the middle of the aisle, indicated by my magenta arrow. The old library is just one building of the Library of the Trinity College, but it is also famous for housing The Book of Kells, which is "an illuminated manuscript and Celtic Gospel book in Latin, containing the four Gospels of the New Testament together with various prefatory texts and tables", as reported by Wikipedia. When Akiho was introduced, they didn't mention she had lived in Ireland, and even though this technically could be just a randomly referenced library and nothing else, it's nice to imagine Akiho and Kaito lived there too. But they DID mention that those two lived in France for a period, hence why the next feature was easier to spot:

Despite the design is sliiiightly different (it's not a perfect tracing of the original, particularly where it seems to be corresponding to the second level deck), I think it's apparent this was meant to suggest the Eiffel Tower and the period they lived in France. The "atmosphere" of the scene also kinda fits it (Kaito always manages to get the best houses - like what do you mean they got an apartment with a view on La Tour Eiffel while they were living in France?? 😆). I don't think the Eiffel Tower needs any introduction, as it's one of the most famous and iconic towers in the world (even the Tokyo Tower is inspired to it!).

So let's just leave some basic info here in case you're traveling the world and want to visit the two locations above:

The old library of Trinity College Old Library, College Green, South-East Inner City, Dublin 2, D02 VR66 IRELAND *Admission fee and pre-booking info here. (Note that currently most of the books have been removed from the Long Room as part of a redevelopment project and will be moved back when works are done)

The Eiffel Tower Av. Gustave Eiffel, 75007 Paris, FRANCE *Admission fee required Additional access info here.

Special Feature / The Pictures in Sakura's Bedroom - Hong Kong

And I've chosen to end this post with an extra: not all of them are buildings but it's something I've already featured in another post loooooooong time ago on this same blog, and I believe it deserves to be featured and collected here again, along with all the other buildings of this arc, for easier reference!!

Have you ever wondered what are the pictures pinned to the wall of Sakura's bedroom in the Clear Card anime? When episode 1 aired on January 7th 2018, some chinese fans were lightning-fast to spot the landscapes depicted in those mysterious photos - they might have looked like some random photos at first glance, but in this anime nothing is left to chance!!

They actually were a very conscious, deliberate choice of the anime staff: they're all referencing landscapes from Hong Kong!!! The chinese fans recognized all the places immediately (and from blurry shots of episode 1, at that!) but later on director Morio Asaka confirmed in the interview of the Starter Book that they were in fact postcards that Syaoran sent to Sakura from Hong Kong during the time they've spent apart between 6th grade and 1st year of middle school.

When I first saw the post from the chinese fans, I remember my heart exploded with tenderness for SyaoSaku, but even more so when director Asaka confirmed it: it was a testament to the efforts made by our two lovebirds to keep their bond alive, waiting for the moment when they would finally be together again. And seeing that Sakura filled her personal space with Syaoran's home gave me a good idea of how much she had been missing him, and used those postcards to "wrap herself in his presence" whenever she needed to. I always appreciated so much this little "present" from the anime staff, always so careful in depicting feelings even through these little details. So let's review what each of those postcards depict (sorry for having to do it like this, but I ran out of pics allowed)

First column The Peak Tower Temple Street Ngong Ping 360 cable car Second column Victoria Harbour ferry Victoria Peak night view

For these ones, as they're just hidden cameos, I prefer leaving a convenient link for each of those places/attractions so you can delve far and wide into the interesting info provided by the official websites (all in English), and maybe even plan your next visit to Hong Kong!

And I believe that's everything, for what I could spot, but if you find other buildings in the Clear Card anime or manga that are clearly referencing real life buildings, let me know and I'll add them here to this post with credits!! ✨✨✨

Remember you can always check the other posts of this series through the hashtag #clear card trivia !

Are you already planning your next trip for a Clear Card pilgrimage?? 😆